Sharapova awaits China's Peng at Australian Open

Maria Sharapova said she is looking forward to taking on China's Peng Shuai after she breezed through the third round at the Australian Open on Friday.

In the men's draw, Rafael Nadal will take on Kevin Anderson after both progressed while local hopes Bernard Tomic and Nick Kyrgios impressed with their own straight-sets wins.

Sharapova took just one hour and one minute to step past Kazakh 31st-seed Zarina Diyas 6-1, 6-1.

Unlike her match on Wednesday where the five-time Grand Slam champion needed to save two match points, Sharapova was rarely matched and is feeling more assured.

"I think I rebounded really well," said the world Number two.

"I had a good hit yesterday. Just kind of thought a little bit more about what I wanted to try to achieve tonight no matter who I played."

Diyas, overwhelmed by the center-court occasion and the Russian 's power, held serve just once.

The 27-year-old said her next opponent was "tricky" and "quite powerful" due to her unorthodox two-handed style.

"I think she's someone that actually gets better by playing matches...because so much depends on her groundstrokes and the fluidity of how she hit," said Sharapova.

"She hits the ball quite flat as well as deep. I just have to be ready for those shots to always come back."

Nick Kyrgios advanced to the fourth round, but continued to show signs of discomfort in his 6-3, 7-6 (8-6), 6-1 win over world Number 75 Malek Jaziri.

Kyrgios, a quarter-finalist at last year's Wimbledon after beating then-world Number one Nadal, was treated for increasing tightness in his back after consolidating a third-set break of serve.

Following the match, in which Kyrgios served 25 aces and another 25 unreturned serves, the 19-year-old said the "pretty painful" back was still limiting his movement.

"I'm obviously getting by, but I don't think I'm moving 100 percent to my ability," he said.

"Right now, I'm happy where it is. There was couple of weeks ago (where) I wasn't sure I'd be playing."

Kyrgios will now play Andreas Seppi who pulled off a shock loss over 17-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer earlier in the day.

Third-seeded Nadal found closing out his match against Dula Sela to be a bit more difficult than expected.

After tying up the first two sets within an hour and wowing the crowd with incredible shots, Nadal took his foot off the accelerator.

Only he found that, when he went for it again half a dozen games into the set, a now-relaxed Sela had found his confidence and was capable of stealing important points.

Twice, Sela had 15-40 on the Nadal serve but each time the 2009 Australian Open champion served himself back into the game.

On the verge of an unlikely tiebreak, the Number 31 seed conceded the match to Nadal 6-1, 6-0, 7-5.

"The third set had me playing with more mistakes, but it is all part of the process that I am doing," said Nadal, in his fifth tournament since July.

"It's normal to play every day with a little bit more ups and downs when you are out for a while."

Nadal will play South African Kevin Anderson who knocked off a gallant Richard Gasquet 6-4, 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (8-6).

Gasquet put himself in prime position to extend the match to a fourth set when a trot of three points took him to 6-4 in the third-set tiebreak.

But he failed to serve out the first and two big Anderson serves turned the game back in favor of the 14th seed.

Australian Number 2 Bernard Tomic knocked over compatriot Sam Groth 6-4, 7-6 (12-10), 6-3 to set up a match against Number 7 seed Tomas Berdych.

Groth, usually brilliant on serve, gave up an early break in the first set, before he double-faulted when serving for the second-set tiebreak.

Tomic, who has only ever beaten Berdych in an exhibition match, said he never got into a rhythm against tennis' biggest server, but was happy to make it through.

"Today was not tennis. It was just return of serve," said the world Number 66, who equaled his best-ever Australian Open performance.

"I didn't play that good, but I won."

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