MIAMI (Florida), April 1: Defending champion Serena Williams beat Kaia Kanepi of Estonia 6-3, 6-3 on Monday to set up a repeat of last year’s Sony Ericsson Open hardcourt tournament final against world No 1 Justine Henin in the last eight.

Henin, seeking her first title of 2008, wasted little energy in a 6-2, 6-2 fourth-round win over world No 53 Elena Vesnina of Russia.

Williams’s sister Venus lined up a quarter-final against world No 4 Svetlana Kuznetsova after beating Danish teenager Caroline Wozniacki 6-3, 6-3.

Third-seeded Kuznetsova sealed a 7-6, 6-3 victory over 16th-seeded Shahar Peer of Israel, avenging her defeat by the same player in Miami last year.

Men’s world No 1 Roger Federer had a short day at the office when his opponent Robin Soderling of Sweden retired from their third-round match trailing 6-4, 3-0 because of illness.

Federer served well but did allow world No 39 Soderling to break him in the fifth game of the first set.

“It’s a big difference between not playing at all or playing one and a half sets,” Federer told reporters.

The newly engaged Andy Roddick, with his fiance Brooklyn Decker sitting beside musician Boyd Tinsley of The Dave Matthews Band in the stands, was tested by qualifier Ivo Minar of the Czech Republic before winning 7-6, 6-4.

Roddick won the first set on his second set point in the tiebreak when world No 86 Minar’s backhand hit the top of the net and landed wide.

Roddick was up a service break in the second set, but allowed Minar to level in the eighth game.

“Whenever you play someone who’s won I think five matches in seven or eight days, including quallies, he’s got to be hitting the ball well,” Roddick said.

“He plays pretty high risk, and a lot of times there’s not a lot you can do besides let him take his swings and hope eventually he might punch himself out.”

Serena Williams looked in much better form against world number 61 Kanepi after she made 60 unforced errors against Flavia Penetta in the third round.

“I definitely had a lot less unforced errors, so I think that was pretty key,” Williams said. “It was kind of up and down, though. She didn’t give me any kind of rhythm.”

One day after upsetting world No 2 Ana Ivanovic, experienced American Lindsay Davenport struggled with the wind in a 6-3, 6-4 loss to 13th-seeded Dinara Safina.

Monday’s results (prefix number denotes seeding):

Men’s singles:

Third round: Mario Ancic (Croatia) bt 18-Juan Monaco (Argentina) 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-1; 6-Andy Roddick (US) bt Ivo Minar (Czech Republic) 7-6 (7-4), 6-4; 11-Mikhail Youzhny (Russia) bt 24-Nicolas Almagro (Spain) 7-6 (7-4), 3-6, 7-6 (8-6); Janko Tipsarevic (Serbia) bt Thomas Johansson (Sweden) 6-4, 6-4; Jose Acasuso (Argentina) bt Dudi Sela (Israel) 6-4, 6-4; Julien Benneteau (France) bt 12-Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France) 6-3, 6-3; 1-Roger Federer (Switzerland) bt Robin Soderling (Sweden) 6-4, 3-0 — Soderling retired; 4-Nikolay Davydenko (Russia) bt Simone Bolelli (Italy) 6-7 (5-7), 7-5, 6-1.

Women’s singles:

Fourth round: 19-Vera Zvonareva (Russia) bt Ai Sugiyama (Japan) 6-2, 6-7 (5-7), 6-0; 8-Serena Williams (US) bt Kaia Kanepi (Estonia) 6-3, 6-3; 10-Elena Dementieva (Russia) bt Sabine Lisicki (Germany) 6-3, 6-2; 4-Jelena Jankovic (Serbia) bt Zheng Jie (China) 6-4, 7-5; 3-Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) bt 16-Shahar Peer (Israel) 7-6 (7-4), 6-3; 1-Justine Henin (Belgium) bt Elena Vesnina (Russia) 6-2, 6-2; 13-Dinara Safina (Russia) bt 32-Lindsay Davenport (US) 6-3, 6-4 ; 6-Venus Williams (US) bt Caroline Wozniacki (Denmark) 6-3, 6-3.—Reuters