• Australian Open, Day Seven

Second and third seeds exit Australian Open

Svetlana Kuznetsova hit 52 unforced errors in defeat © Getty Images

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Day seven in pictures

Dinara Safina and Svetlana Kuznetsova, the second and third seeds at the Australian Open, are both out of the tournament. Safina, who was forced to retire in the first set of her fourth round match against Maria Kirilenko due to a back injury with the score at 4-5, bemoaned a "terrible" situation after pulling out.

"My back again. It suddenly hit me and it was getting worse and worse. I have no idea how it could happen. It's really, really terrible," she said. "I have to go back to my doctor in Germany to speak to him. I don't know what happened." Kirilenko now moves into the quarter-finals.

Kuznetsova suffered a shock 3-6 6-3 1-6 defeat against 19th seed Nadia Petrova, who continued the impressive form that saw her vanquish Kim Clijsters in the previous round.

The French Open champion came back strongly from a sluggish start - losing the first set - to take the second, but she was outclassed in the decider. Kuznetsova, who produced 52 unforced errors in the match, admitted that her performance level was inadequate.

"To play good and try to win Grand Slams, you have to be able to perform and to pass through difficult moments like this," she said. "Definitely it was not the best schedule for me [she had been in previous round action 36 hours before starting against Petrova], but it's not an excuse at all. I had all the chances to win, I just didn't use them."

Petrova, 28, will now take on Clijsters' Belgian compatriot Justine Henin in the quarter-final. The unseeded Henin, playing in her first Grand Slam since returning from her two-year retirement, defeated the qualifier Yanina Wickmayer 7-6 1-6 6-3. Wickmayer, playing an attacking game, was sporadically dominant but could not grasp sustained control of the match.

"It's been a great moment for myself, just to be back and with everything going so well. It wasn't easy," Henin said. "She played a great match, really aggressive. Physically it's not so easy having not played for two years. That's why I love being on court now."

There will be another unseeded player in the last eight after China's Zheng Jie defied the odds to defeat Alona Bondarenko, the 31st seed, 7-6 6-4.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.