Serena storms into QF with crushing victory

Three-time champion Serena Williams stormed to a double bagel 6-0, 6-0 rout of Czech Andrea Hlavackova to reach her 10th US Open quarter-final yesterday in a ruthless display of her title credentials. The 30-year-old American allowed the world number 82 just eight points on her serve and finished the last-16 clash with 31 winners against just seven unforced errors, backing up her 57-minute win with eight aces. Williams, a 14-time Grand Slam title winner and the reigning Wimbledon and Olympic champion, has dropped just 12 games in four matches at the Open this year. She hasn’t lost a game in her last three sets played while yesterday’s mauling was the fifth time she had handed out a double bagel. “Andrea played really well,” Williams told the Arthur Ashe Stadium of her outclassed opponent, who departed the singles tournament $120,000 richer for making the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time. “She never gave up. She’s such a great fighter. But I played really well today, I tried to stay relaxed and do what I do. I knew she would be a dangerous opponent.” Williams has now reached a 34th quarter-final at a major and next faces 12th seed Ana Ivanovic. The Serb reached her first Grand Slam quarter-final in four years—and first ever at the US Open—when she defeated Bulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova 6-0, 6-4. Ivanovic has never taken a set off Williams in her three defeats against the American. Two of those lossess came at the US Open in 2006 and 2011. The 24-year-old Ivanovic, whose last major quarter-final came on the way to her one and only Grand Slam triumph at the 2008 French Open, swept through the first set in just 23 minutes yesterday. Pironkova, the world number 55 who became the first Bulgarian to make a Grand Slam semi-final when she charged into the last four at Wimbledon in 2010, was the first woman from her country to make the last 16 in New York since 1994. But her challenge was restricted by a neck injury and she twice needed treatment, including a medical time-out at the end of the first set. She battled gamely in the second set, breaking Ivanovic twice, including the ninth game when the former world number one was serving for the match. Meanwhile, men’s  top seed Roger Federer advanced into his 34th consecutive Grand Slam quarter-final without touching a racquet when American Mardy Fish withdrew from their US Open match for health reasons. The 31-year-old Swiss star, seeking his 18th Grand Slam title and sixth US Open crown, advanced into a last-eight matchup against Czech sixth seed Tomas Berdych, who dispatched Spanish 11th seed Nicolas Almagro 7-6 (7/4), 6-4, 6-1. “I probably need to have something more than 100 percent,” said Berdych, who has lost 11 of 15 career meetings to top seed Federer. The walkover stretched Federer’s record for consecutive quarter-final Grand Slam appearances in the Open era to 38, three shy of the record 41 achieved by American Jimmy Connors. Federer, who won his 17th Grand Slam title in July at Wimbledon, has not dropped a set in the Flushing Meadows fortnight.