THREE top-10 seeds crashed out of the Australian Open in Melbourne as the tournament heated up on the eve of the second week.

But world number two Rafael Nadal had no such problems, advancing to the quarter-finals after his opponent, Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu, retired hurt during the second set of their match on Rod Laver Arena.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga's astonishing campaign continued as the unseeded Frenchman dumped compatriot Richard Gasquet in the fourth round.

Tsonga, who disposed of Andy Murray last Monday, moved into the quarter-finals with a 6-2 6-7 (5/7) 7-6 (8/6) 6-3 over his close friend in three hours and 19 minutes.

Nikolay Davydenko had no answers to fellow Russian Mikhail Youzhny as the 13th-ranked man eliminated the world number three 7-6 (7/2) 6-3 6-1.

And David Nalbandian was the third big name to fall at Melbourne Park, the number 10 seed handed a straight-sets thumping by former world number one Juan Carlos Ferrero.

There was no great escape for the Argentinian comeback specialist as Ferrero found his best form to win 6-1 6-2 6-3.

But it was the crowd-pleasing Tsonga who captured the imagination of the fans on day seven.

The world number 38 looked at home on centre stage in his second match at a near-capacity Rod Laver Arena, using a blend of fierce baseline power and finesse at the net to record the win over his country's top-ranked male.

Gasquet, eighth in the world, took the second set but watched the athletic Tsonga storm back.

Tsonga regained the ascendancy in the third set tie-breaker with a superb backhand up the line and whipped through the fourth to set up a battle with Youzhny.

Second seed Nadal received an easy passage into the quarter-finals when Mathieu pulled the plug in the second set.

Unlike world number one Roger Federer and 19th seed Lleyton Hewitt the previous evening, who both spent more than four hours on court in their third-round matches, Nadal advanced in just 49 minutes of court time when he was leading 6-4 3-0.

Mathieu, the 23rd seed, received treatment twice in the first set for an ankle injury.

After going down two breaks in the second set, he was unable to continue, handing Nadal victory and a date with Jarkko Nieminen in the quarter-finals.

Justine Henin and Maria Sharapova will meet in the quarter- finals after both enjoyed convincing wins in the fourth round.

Henin saw off Taiwanese qualifier Hsieh Su-Wei 6-2 6-2 while Sharapova was ruthless in her 6- 2 6-0 demolition of 11th seed Elena Dementieva.

They will now meet in the quarter-final of a grand slam for just the second time on Tuesday.

Henin and Sharapova have met on eight occasions, with Henin winning six of those matches.

Also through to the final eight is defending champion Serena Williams, who knocked out 12th seed Nicole Vaidisova 6-3 6-4 to set up a clash with Jelena Jankovic after the Serbian beat local hope Casey Dellacqua.

Third seed Jankovic put aside her shaky start to the tournament by dominating Dellacqua.