Young pretender Caroline Wozniacki outclasses Sharapova

TOP seed Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark elicited a barrel load of errors from former champion Maria Sharapova to post a 6-3, 6-4 victory in last night's glamour clash at Flushing Meadows and advance to the quarter-finals of the US Open.

Wozniacki, runner-up last year to Kim Clijsters, engaged the Russian 14th seed in rallies and patiently waited for her mistakes, which came on groundstrokes from both wings and frequently on serves as well. Three-time Grand Slam winner Sharapova, the 2006 champion in New York, committed 36 unforced errors including nine double faults, which twice closed service breaks against her.

In the men's draw, third seed Novak Djokovic rolled into his sixth straight Grand Slam quarter-final, defeating Mardy Fish in straight sets.

Djokovic beat the 19th-seeded Fish 6-3, 6-4, 6-1 after converting six of eight break points.

Djokovic, the 2008 Australian Open champion from Serbia, has reached at least the semi-finals at Flushing Meadows the past three years. Fish was making his longest run at a Grand Slam this year after failing to advance past the second round at the first three majors.

He will now face Gael Monfils, who beat fellow Frenchman Richard Gasquet 6-4, 7-5, 7-5 in two hours and 35 minutes, Gasquet missing several great chances to take the match into at least a fourth set.

Earlier in the day, Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova became the first woman into the quarter-finals of the US Open with an impressive victory over former champion Svetlana Kuznetsova.

At 45th in the world, Cibulkova is the lowest ranked player remaining in the draw and will now face Wozniacki in the last eight, but the 21-year-old shrugged off her poor summer form to secure a 7-5, 7-6 (7-4) victory on Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Cibulkova had not won back-to-back matches in six tournaments since Wimbledon before arriving in New York, but won her first two matches at Flushing Meadows in three sets before dropping just one game in beating Lourdes Dominguez Lino in the third round. "I would say it was a good match from my side," said Cibulkova. "I was just trying to be aggressive as I could, and Svetlana today, she lets me be more aggressive.

"I was really pumped for this. I know my game and I know myself, so I knew I could make it. I could beat everybody in this tournament. I was just waiting for a moment and I'm happy it's here."

Estonia's Kaia Kanepi recovered from a horrendous first set to reach her third career Grand Slam quarter-final with a 0-6, 7-6, 6-1 victory over Belgium's Yanina Wickmayer, who was a surprise semi-finalist here 12 months ago.