Kristina Mladenovic has stormed into the quarter-finals of the Italian Open after a comfortable 75-minute victory over Ashleigh Barty.

The No.8 seeded Australian was slow out of the blocks, going down a double break in the opening set before losing 6-2.

The Frenchwoman broke again early in the second set and was never pegged back, winning the second set 6-3.

Next up in the last eight for Mladenovic is Maria Sakkari after the Greek saw off second-seeded Petra Kvitova. The Czech was forced to retire with Sakkari leading 7-5 5-7 4-0.

Victoria Azarenka qualified for the quarters when her opponent Garbine Muguruza pulled out of their match due to injury.

The Spaniard, who had just played her second-round encounter hours earlier, felt pain in her left thigh forcing her to withdraw while trailing 6-4 3-1 to the Belarussian.

After knocking out seventh-seed Sloane Stephens earlier in the day, Johanna Konta backed it up with a straight sets win over Venus Williams.

The Brit needed just 72 minutes to edge her American opponent 6-2 6-4, setting up a meeting with Czech Marketa Vondrousova who beat Daria Kasatkina in three sets.

Vondrousova, 19, reached the third round after defeating world No.2 Simona Halep 2-6 7-5 6-3 earlier in the day.

In another third-round encounter, Kiki Bertens clinched a hard-fought 6-4 1-6 6-3 win over Carla Suarez Navarro.

It was Bertens’ second match of the day after her earlier 6-2 4-6 7-5 second-round victory over Amanda Anisimova.

In her bid for a second trophy this year, the Dutch player will take on world No.1 Naomi Osaka.

The Japanese made it safely through to the quarter-finals winning both her matches in straight-sets.

She defeated Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova 6-3 6-3 before sinking Romanian Mihaela Buzarnescu by the same scoreline.