On the court, meanwhile, she made short work of her old friend, Serbia's Ana Ivanovic, to earn a quarterfinal place. However, Clijsters, seeded second this year behind Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki, has failed to go beyond the quarter-finals in her last two Grand Slam tournaments.

Flanders' other Grand Slam hopeful, 15th-seeded Yanina Wickmayer fought off a match point in the third-set tiebreaker to beat Patty Schnyder in the third round. As Flanders Today went to press, Wickmayer, a semifinalist last year, was due to face 31st-seeded Kaia Kanepi in the fourth round.