The morning session of Day 6 at the Australian Open turned out to be a mixed bag for the leading ladies. While Wimbledon Champion Petra Kvitova and Russian diva Maria Sharapova recorded convincing wins, it was curtains for 2011 Australian Open Semi-finalist Vera Zvonareva and the No.9 seed Marion Bartoli as they suffered unexpected reverses. Joining Kvitova and Sharapova in round 4 are the former world No.1 Ana Ivanovic, a straight sets winner in her third round against American Vania King, No.12 seed Sabine Lisicki who beat former US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova and the lone Italian left in the draw Sara Errani who ended the magnificent run of Romanian Sorana Cirstea.

Having received a good three set workout in her previous round match against the Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro, World No.2 Kvitova was in no mood to relax in her match against the talented No. 27 seed Maria Kirilenko. Kirilenko held a 2-1 advantage over the Czech prior to this match but was forced to play second fiddle right throughout the first set, a nagging strain in the left abductor not helping her case. Notwithstanding Kirilenko's hindered movement, Kvitova was in top gear, producing 20 winners out of a total of 42 points played in the match. The No. 27 seed was eventually forced to retire with the score reading 6-0, 1-0 in Kvitova's favour.

The Australian Open Junior Championships will get underway tomorrow with the world's best juniors set to compete against each other here at Melbourne Park. The newly ranked world No.1 junior Luke Saville from South Australia will lead the boys' field. The 17-year-old had a remarkable year in 2011 winning the Junior Wimbledon Championships, two ITF junior titles in Korea and the Optus 18s Australian Championships in December. Most recently he was runner-up at this week's Loy Yang Power Traralgon International.

Joining Saville and rounding out the top five boys in the draw are world No.2 junior Thiago Monteiro (BRA), world No.3 junior Liam Broady (GBR), world No.4 junior Kaichi Uchida (JPN) and world No.5 junior Mitchell Krueger (USA).

The Defending Champion Kim Clijsters and the new poster boy of Australian Tennis Bernard Tomic made their way through to the round of 16 in contrasting styles in what turned to be a scintillating evening session on Day 5 of the Australian Open. No. 5 seed and French Open Champion Li Na and the former US Open champion Juan Martin Del Potro also booked their place in the next round without much ado.

After a rather unimpressive start to the Open by her high standards, defending champion Kim Clijsters was looking for a much improve performance in her third round clash with Daniela Hantuchova on Friday. And improve she did as she disposed off the Slovakian No.20 seed in straight sets 6-3, 6-2 to set up a repeat of last year's final against French Open champion Li Na, who was in the locker room even before she could bat an eyelid as her opponent Anabel Medina Garrigues retired at 0-3 down in the first set. Clijsters' performance, though not exactly spectacular, was undoubtedly clinical and served a clear 'I am not done yet' message to the other contenders. Li Na, on the other hand, was gifted a place in round 4 as Garrigues suffered a freak injury in the second game of the match and was forced to pullout in highly unfortunate circumstances.

With the 'warming up' period well and truly over, there is some unmistakably competitive Round 3 action lined up for Day 6 of the Australian Open. Setting the courts on fire, among others, would be defending champion Novak Djokovic, the remarkably agile Lleyton Hewitt, last year's finalist Andy Murray, Russian diva Maria Sharapova, Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova and 5-time Australian Open champion Serena Williams.

The Serbian world no.1, all set to make his Hollywood debut by the end of this year, will face the Frenchman who specialises in fighting tooth and nail - Nicolas Mahut. Novak Djokovic hasn't been troubled in the defence of his title as yet and with the ominous form that he is in, Mahut's chances of playing 'party pooper' look slim. A win here would set up an interesting Round of 16 duel against the winner of the Milos Raonic - Lleyton Hewitt match.

Top seed Caroline Wozniacki and world no.3 Victoria Azarenka continued to torment lower ranked ladies in the top half of the women's draw, powering their way into the second round on the back of straight set wins. Wozniacki, who hasn't yet clicked into top gear at the Australian Open, produced probably her best tennis of the tournament till date as she thrashed 31st seed Monica Niculescu of Romania 6-2, 6-2. Azarenka meanwhile has been on a bit of roll and has been handing out spanking on spanking in her matches thus far. The noisy Belarusian was given a bit of a workout today by the Hobart champion Mona Barthel. Azarenka needed almost an hour and a half to record a 6-2, 6-4 victory.

While Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal got top billing today on Rod Laver Arena, the leading lights of the WTA Tour were relegated to the Hisense Arena with Wozniacki and Niculescu kicking things off. The young Dane brought a 2-0 record against Niculescu into this match and the confidence showed in her approach to the contest. Caroline 'The Counter Puncher' was missing today and replaced by Wozniacki 'The Warrior' as she went for her shots and took some chances. Wozniacki produced 23 winners and was a clinical 7 of 8 on break point conversions as she hammered her opponent into submission in just 76 minutes to book a fourth round date with former world no.1 Jelena Jankovic, who thumped American teenager Christina McHale, 6-2, 6-0.

The big 2 in the bottom half of the men's draw, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal stayed on collision course for their semi-final showdown by registering routine wins in the third round on Friday morning. Nadal, opening proceedings on Rod Laver Arena, was way too strong for Slovakian Lukas Lacko, winning in straight sets 6-2, 6-4, 6-2. Federer was made to work a little harder by his opponent, the big serving Croatian Ivo Karlovic, before prevailaing 7-6, 7-5, 6-3.

World no.119 Lukas Lacko, had battled his way through three qualifying rounds to make the main draw of the Australian Open, where he stunned 28th seed Ivan Ljubicic in the first round in 5 sets. A slightly more routine four set win against Donald Young set up a showdown with Nadal in the third round. Having taken a set off Nadal as recently as Qatar, Lacko would have hoped to give the Spaniard a run for his money. And he did briefly, drawing first blood by breaking Rafa's serve early in the first set. Sadly for the Slovakian that was the only bite of the cherry he got as Nadal promptly broke back and then twice more to take the opening set 6-2 in 43 minutes.