China and Russia rubbed salt into the US' Wimbledon wounds on Monday by underlining their status as the emerging superpowers in women's tennis.
Li Na became the first Chinese player to reach the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam, while Russia saw three women make up the last eight with wins for Maria Sharapova, Elena Dementieva and Anastasia Myskina.
America's last representative in either the women's or men's singles was sent packing when unheralded Shenay Perry lost in straight sets to Dementieva.
On a day when temperatures shot up to 32 degrees, top seeds Roger Federer and Amelie Mauresmo were ice-cool.
Federer brushed aside the Czech Republic's Tomas Berdych 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 to move closer to a fourth successive Wimbledon title, while Mauresmo, the Australian Open champion, was equally untroubled beating Ana Ivanovic 6-3, 6-4.
Double French Open champion Rafael Nadal reached the Wimbledon last eight for the first time with a 6-3, 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 win against Georgia's Irakli Labadze.
However, the young Spaniard spent most his post-match news conference defending his reputation after his name was linked to the ongoing cycling doping controversy in his own country.
"I'm well enough educated in the sporting world and out of the sporting world to not cheat. It's lies and people who write lies are bad people," he said.
Nadal added that he was considering legal action.
Men's 2002 champion Lleyton Hewitt reached the last eight with a 6-4, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 win against Spain's David Ferrer and next meets Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus, the Australian Open runner-up, who knocked out Britain's Andy Murray.
Li, the Chinese No. 1 and 27th seed, came from behind to beat the Czech Republic's Nicole Vaidisova 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 and will now face second seed Kim Clijsters of Belgium for a place in the last four.
The 24-year-old from Wuhan showed that her third round defeat of former US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova was no fluke and illustrated why she has leapt 40 places in the rankings to a career high 30.
Maria Sharapova struggled with the searing heat as well as the stubborn resistance of Italy's Flavia Pennetta to reach the quarter-finals.
The 2004 champion toiled for almost two and a half hours to overcome the 16th seed 7-6 (7/5), 3-6, 6-3 and now faces Dementieva.
RSS