Now serving: Daniela delight

Once brittle and lacking confidence, Daniela Hantuchova believes her nerveless 6-1, 7-6 victory over defending Australian Open champion Sere...

Once brittle and lacking confidence, Daniela Hantuchova believes her nerveless 6-1, 7-6 victory over defending Australian Open champion Serena Williams means she is no longer just another pretender.

The 17th seed was excited by a win that she thinks could mark a turning point in her sometimes promising but often erratic career.

8220;I had so many matches like this where I was really close to beating the top players and finally I did it today. I8217;m just really extremely happy about that,8221; she said.

Tall and good-looking, she soon shot to fifth in the world and was being touted as the next big thing in women8217;s tennis. But from that point Hantuchova8217;s career began to nosedive. She finished 2003 ranked 19th after a sudden loss of form and criticism about her dramatic weight loss. The willowy blonde switched coaches but nothing seemed to work as she listlessly fell to opponents she knew she could beat.

Asked what the difference was between her match against Williams and similar ones she had lost in the past two years, Hantuchova had a simple answer: 8220;Heart8221;.

8220;Just really being mentally strong and resistant and 8230;keep fighting for every single point and not giving up in any kind of situation,8221; she said. She did just that as the 13th-seeded American fought back in the second set of their third-round match, played at night following severe heat conditions forced many matches to be rescheduled under lights and closed roof.

Williams saved three match points to force the tiebreak but Hantuchova stayed calm through the decider.

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Hantuchova8217;s reward is a fourth-round match against fourth seed Maria Sharapova and the chance of another quarter-final. 8220;I can8217;t wait to be out there again,8221; she said.

8212; Anupama Bagri

Oz Open overview

	nbsp;	Rebound ace: Andy Roddick fired 17 aces in his 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 win over Frenchman Julien Benneteau in the third round. Match of the day: French veteran Fabrice Santoro battled under the hot conditions for 227minutes to pull off an upset win over Argentine 8th seed Gaston Gaudio. The 6-3, 6-2, 5-7, 1-6, 6-4 win over the 2004 French Open champion earned the 33-year-old Frenchman a place in the final 16 for only the second time in his 13 th year at the Australian Open. Russians on a roll: Maria Sharapova led the Russian brigade 8212; including Nadia Petrova, Elena Vesnina and Svetlana Kuznetsova 8212; into the fourth round on a hot and windy day. It was not as easy for Vesnina, who struggled through three sets and five match points before finally scraping through a 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 victory over Ukrainian Olga Savchuk. Sixth seed Petrova displayed a stunning service game winning 95 per cent of first serve points, as she coasted to a 6-1, 6-2 win over Italian Maria Elena Camerin. 14th seed Kuznetsova recorded a 6-3, 6-1 win over Italian Mara Santangelo in 56 minutes. Daily Drama: Lindsay Davenport braved the heat, a niggling ankle injury and 42 unforced errors to pull off a 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 win over Russian teenager Maria Kirilenko to set up a meeting with Svetlana Kuznetsova.	nbsp;