Serena Williams cruises into US Open semi-finals

Former World No. 1 and Serena Williams on Tuesday (local time) went past Czech Republic's Karolína Pliskova in straight sets to enter the semi-finals of the women's singles event in the US Open for the tenth successive year.

The six-time US Open champion registered a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Pliskova, who beat Serena in the semi-finals of the competition two years ago, to keep her hopes of winning a record-equaling 24th Grand Slam title alive.

The current World No. 26 Williams got off to a good start in the first set winning the first game, but an array of unenforced errors led to her being pegged back by the No. 8 seeded Czech in back-to-back games.

 

Reeling from a 2-4 position, Serena turned on the style and won eight consecutive games to wrap up the first set and establish a 4-0 lead in the second, effectively sealing her spot in the semi-final.

The Czech rallied back into the contest to pull three games back but it wasn't enough to prevent Williams from a straight sets victory. The American held Pliskova to love in the final game with the score at 5-3 and her 13th ace of the match wrapped up the contest.

In the other games, defending champion Sloane Stephens of the USA was outclassed in her quarter-final clash by Latvia's Anastasija Sevastova 2-6, 3-6.

In men's singles, Argentian's Juan Martín del Potro booked his berth in the semifinals by edging past American John Isner 6-7, 6-3, 7-6, 6-2.

World No. 1 Rafael Nadal's quarter-final clash against Dominic Thiem of Austria is currently underway.