Eighth seed Garcia sets up Keys clash

Melbourne - Eighth seed Caroline Garcia battled into the last 16 of the Australian Open Saturday to set up clash with the dangerous Madison Keys for a place in the quarters-finals.

The Frenchwoman, who won two WTA titles last year to send her rocketing up the rankings, proved too much for unseeded Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus, winning 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 on Hisense Arena.

She will now play American 17th seed Keys who continued her steady progress through the draw with a 6-3, 6-4 win over unseeded Ana Bogdan.

"Madison has been going great and it is going to be big hitting from both sides," Garcia said of her next opponent.

"I haven't done too well against her before and I want to improve."

Garcia, who had won her only previous encounter with Sasnovich, raced through the opening set in 42 minutes before the Belarussian got a break in the second to take it to a deciding set.

But she was fast running out of energy and the French star, showing no problems from a recent back injury, closed out the match comfortably on serve in 2hrs 5mins.

Results from the Australian Open on Saturday:

Women's singles

3rd round

Karolina Pliskova (CZE x6) bt Lucie Safarova (CZE x29) 7-6 (8/6), 7-5

Madison Keys (USA x17) bt Ana Bogdan (ROM) 6-3, 6-4

Simona Halep (ROM x1) bt Lauren Davis (USA) 4-6, 6-4, 15-13