World number one Dinara Safina continued to bulldoze her way through the French Open draw when she flattened France's Aravane Rezai 6-1 6-0 to reach the quarter-finals on Sunday.
The Russian will next face either ninth seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus or holder Ana Ivanovic of Serbia, seeded eighth, for a rematch of last year's final.
Safina, who has now dropped only five games en route to the last eight, left a sunbathed Centre Court barely sweating after 53 minutes.
The Russian's impressive run falls just short of the record of Mary Pierce, who conceded four games en route to the Paris quarter-finals in 1994.
For a few minutes it seemed that Safina, gunning for a maiden grand slam title, would not have it all her way against Rezai.
The Frenchwoman had two break points in the third game but then ran into a brick wall as all her groundstrokes started rebounding back to her side of the court faster.
Safina shrugged off the first break point with a service winner and Rezai sent a backhand wide on the second.
The Russian, who has only lost once on clay this season, went on to break for 3-1 after benefiting from two double faults by Rezai.
Safina mixed her game with sliced backhands to further unsettle the world number 57 and broke again for 5-1 with a forehand down the line, following on serve to pocket the first set.
Rezai managed only nine points in the second set as Safina peppered the court with groundstroke winners and bagged another straightforward victory on her first match point when the Frenchwoman netted a backhand.
Cibulkova first into women's quarter-finals
Slovak Dominika Cibulkova was the first woman to book a place in the quarter-finals on Sunday when she outwitted Hungarian Agnes Szavay 6-2 6-4. The 20th seed, who will be appearing in the last eight of a grand slam for the first time, sealed victory over Venus Williams's conqueror with a sweetly struck forehand down the line after a long rally.
The 20-year-old Slovak threw her racket up in the air in celebration after booking a date with either Russian former world number one Maria Sharapova or China's Li Na, who play their fourth round match later on Sunday.
Cibulkova is the first Slovak to reach this stage of Roland Garros since Karina Habsudova in 1996.
Speedy Gonzalez races into quarter-finals
Chile's Fernando Gonzalez darted into the quarter-finals with a 6-2 6-4 6-2 win over Romanian 30th seed Victor Hanescu on Sunday.
The 12th seed will play his third quarter-final match at Roland Garros against either world number three Andy Murray of Britain or Croatian 13th seed Marin Cilic.
Gonzalez relied on his punishing forehand to race through the match in just 87 minutes, becoming the first player to reach the last eight at this year's championships.
The 2007 Australian Open runner-up needed only one break to bag the second as Hanescu, who had not lost a set before Sunday, faded away, bowing out on the second match point on Gonzalez's 29th forehand winner.
