World number one Iga Swiatek fired an Australian Open warning to her rivals with a crushing 6-0, 6-1 win over Spanish qualifier Cristina Bucsa on Friday.
The French and US Open champion will now face a showdown with Wimbledon title-holder Elena Rybakina for a place in the quarter-finals.
Swiatek raced to victory in 55 minutes and only missed out on a "double bagel" -- 6-0, 6-0 -- when Bucsa, ranked 100, finally held her serve at 5-0 in the second set.
The title favourite from Poland had said after a tough first-round examination that she needed to find some extra "intensity".
She has certainly done it, cruising into the last 16 with the loss of only six games in her second- and third-round matches.
The 21-year-old is on course to win the Australian Open for the first time and with it the thrid leg of a career Grand Slam of all four majors.
"I knew she can be solid so I didn't really want to let her come back" said Swiatek, who made her Australian Open debut in 2019.
"I'm glad that I was really disciplined and just focusing on my tactics.
"And yeah, I felt like I'm moving into flow. So that was nice," added Swiatek, a year after recording her best result at Melbourne Park, losing to Danielle Collins in the semi-finals.
The three-time major winner -- she also triumphed at Roland Garros in 2020 -- will meet Moscow-born Kazakh Rybakina after she beat last year's runner-up Collins 6-2, 5-7, 6-2.
"We played recently in Dubai," said Swiatek of Rybakina, the 22nd seed. "It wasn't a tournament, it was an exhibition. So we know each other pretty well.
"We also played in juniors, but you know, we both made such a progress that it doesn't really matter what happened a couple of years ago."
Rybakina said Swiatek, who seems to be getting better as the tournament progresses, would be a very difficult prospect.