Gustavo Kuerten had the Olympic tennis tournament dancing to a Brazilian beat on Saturday as he cruised into the last eight of the men's singles.

Venus and Serena Williams also enjoyed themselves in the Sydney sunshine, reaching the doubles quarter-finals after dropping the first set against Russian pair Elena Likhovtseva and Anastasia Myskina.

But it was third time unlucky for Spain's Conchita Martinez and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, who were eliminated by Belarus' Natasha Zvereva and Olga Barabanshchikova. The Spaniards won silver at the Barcelona Olympics and bronze in Atlanta four years ago.

Kuerten, the second seed and favourite to take the men's singles gold, looked close to his best as he powered to a 7-6 (7-2), 6-3 win over Croatian Ivan Ljubicic in the third round, then declared: "I've got my rhythm back." The Brazilian, who won his second French Open in June, faces a tough quarter-final clash against the winner of Saturday's night match between Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia and Mark Philippoussis, the last Australian man left standing. Spanish eighth seed Juan Carlos Ferrero also advanced to the last eight, beating Canadian wildcard entrant Daniel Nestor, who had upset Australia's Patrick Rafter in the second round, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3. In the women's singles, Australia's young hopeful Jelena Dokic rallied from 5-1 down in the second set to eliminate Paraguay's Rossana de los Rios 7-6 (7-5), 7-5. The 17-year-old lost her concentration after rolling over an ankle in the second game of the set but, after the pain subsided, pulled herself together to prevent the match going into a third set. There were also wins for the Russian 10th seed Elena Dementieva and Austria's Barbara Schett, who will meet each other in the quarters. After her doubles win on Saturday, Venus is back in action in singles on Sunday with a tough quarter-final against Sanchez Vicario. The Spaniard was the last player to beat the Wimbledon and US Open champion - at the French Open back in June. Since then Williams has won 29 straight matches but she knows she will have to be sharper than she was on Saturday if she is to get past Sanchez Vicario. "She loves winning and she never gives up," she said of her opponent. "But I feel I have the same qualities." end

AFP