World No. 1 Justine Henin strolled into the last 16, beating Italian 25th seed Francesca Schiavone 7-5, 6-4 at the Australian Open today.

The Belgian top seed exchanged service twice with Schiavone in the 57-minute first set before she broke twice to take the seventh victory over her rival in as many meetings.

Henin will next meet either Hsieh Su-Wei from Chinese Taipei who will make her first third round appearance at the Australian Open, against French Aravane Rezai.

Czech Nicole Vaidisova, seeded 12th, made an easier work past Japanese Ai Sugiyama 6-3, 6-4.