Serena Williams thanked the heavens last night after a timely rain delay ensured her safe passage to the last eight. The American had collapsed in a heap on the baseline after suffering cramp in her left calf at 5-5 in the second set of her match against Daniela Hantuchova and, amid screams of agony and floods of tears, appeared as if she would be forced to retire.

However, after receiving treatment from the trainer during a three-minute medical timeout, Williams, who had won the first set 6-2, opted to play on. Just as 11 men playing against ten can prove perilous in football, playing an injured opponent has sent many a tennis player into psychological meltdown and Hantuchova’s game collapsed. Williams somehow forced a tie-break, despite hardly being unable to move, and was 4-2 down when the rain arrived. Never has a player welcomed an interruption with such relish.

Hantuchova, of Slovakia, regained her composure when play resumed to tie up the second set, but Williams, choosing to play in her tracksuit bottoms to keep the damaged muscle warm, played through the pain to clinch a 6-2, 6-7, 6-2 victory. “I was definitely saved by the rain,” Williams said. “I’ve never dealt with such pain. I can’t believe I won. I figured I was going to die trying.”

Williams, who drew on motivational phrases jotted in a notebook at the change of ends, was advised during the rain delay to take on as much fluid as possible and asked for a bathroom break as a result, but she did not end up going. “God, I had to use the bathroom so bad,” she said. “I kept saying to myself ‘one more game’, until there were no games left.”

Hantuchova was unimpressed by her opponent’s antics. “It’s so hard to play against someone you know is struggling,” she said. “Mentally it was very tough. When somebody is cramping, it’s hard because they are tired, so the rain break obviously helped her. I don’t think there was anything wrong with her in the third set. I don’t think there can be too much wrong when you serve at 120mph.”

Williams will now play Justine Henin – who endured no such histrionics in her nononsense 6-2, 6-2 win over Patty Schnyder – in a repeat of their French Open quarter-final last month.

Expect fireworks. Williams and Henin have played each other ten times and have a colourful history. The American suffered a straight-sets defeat when they played in Paris and was ever graceful in defeat. “All she [Henin] had to do was show up,” Williams said.

But that outburst was nothing in comparison with the animosity of their previous meeting at Roland Garros, in 2003. Williams was booed by the crowd for querying line calls and complaining to the umpire after Henin had held up a hand to indicate she was not ready when receiving at 4-2 down in the third set. The American lost the match and, at her postmatch press conference, she accused the Belgian of “lying and fabricating”.

Henin has insisted that any differences with Williams are behind her. “It’s been much better in the past few months,” she said yesterday. “The past is the past. We have a lot of respect for each other.”

Venus Williams fought back from 5-3 down in the third set against Akiko Morigami, of Japan, in a match that spanned three days, to win 6-2, 3-6, 7-5. “I got 3-5 down and had to correct it quickly, so I made the correction,” was Williams’s frank assessment of what went wrong. She is scheduled to play Maria Sharapova, the No 2 seed, in the fourth round today.

Michaella Krajicek, the 18-year-old half-sister of Richard, the Wimbledon champion in 1996, reached a grand-slam tournament quarter-final for the first time with victory over Laura Granville.