Sharapova looks at the positives after her painful exit

The third seed had spent two minutes short of seven hours on court in her first three matches, half of it in extreme heat in the second round against Karin Knapp.

All appeared well when she won the first set of her fourth-round match against Dominika Cibulkova but Sharapova needed treatment for a hip problem and faded to a 3-6 6-4 6-1 defeat.

The Russian missed the latter part of last season with a shoulder problem, and she said: “Those aches and pains are expected when you spend a long time on the court. You just have to play through it.

“This is only my second tournament back, so it was those types of things that are expected.

“I have to look at the positives and see where I have come from in four or five months. I haven’t played a lot of tennis in those six months.”

Cibulkova, who at 5ft 3ins was giving away almost a foot in height, completed her set of grand slam quarter-finals.

The Slovakian, who hammered Sharapova at the French Open in 2009, said: “This is what I’m really, really happy for, finally I made it.”

Cibulkova next meets Romania’s Simona Halep, who reached her first grand slam quarter-final with a 6-4 2-6 6-0 win over eighth seed Jelena Jankovic.

Second seed Victoria Azarenka is clear favourite to win her third straight Australian Open title.

Azarenka enjoyed a 6-3 6-2 victory over Sloane Stephens in a rematch of last year’s controversial semi-final, when the Belarusian indicated she had taken a medical time-out late in the match for tactical reasons.

In the quarter-finals, Azarenka will play fifth seed Agnieszka Radwanska, who defeated Spain’s Garbine Muguruza 6-1 6-3 in the night session on Rod Laver Arena.

Azarenka has won their last seven meetings, with Radwanska’s most recent set against the second seed coming in Melbourne two years ago.