Mauresmo suffers early exit

Former world number one Amelie Mauresmo has been knocked out of the Australian Open admitting that she is a long way from the form that took her to the top.

The Frenchwoman looked a shadow of the player who won the Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2006, losing 3-6 6-4 6-4 to unseeded Australian Casey Dellacqua, the world number 78, in the third round.

The loss was Mauresmo's earliest at the Australian Open since 2000 and the 28-year-old, who slipped down the rankings to 18 after an injury-hit 2007.

However top seed Justine Henin book her passage through to the fourth round with a straight sets win over Francesca Schiavone.

The Belgian was forced to dig deep against the 25th seed from Italy but came through 7-5 6-4.

And Maria Sharapova is also through after a 6-3 6-0 win over fellow Russian Elena Vesnina. She will now face another compatriot, Elena Dementieva.

Meanwhile, defending champion Serena Williams beat Victoria Azarenka 6-3 6-4 and will meet Nicole Vaidisova.

Jelena Jankovic survived a scare to beat French number 30 seed Virginie Razzano 6-2 4-6 6-1.

© Independent Television News Limited 2008. All rights reserved.