World No.1 Serena Williams, who is seeking her eighth title of the year, stormed into the semi-finals at the WTA Rogers Cup with a crushing straight-set win over Magdalena Rybarikova.
The 31-year-old Williams blitzed the world number 42 Slovak 6-1, 6-1 in a quarter-final match that took just one hour on Friday.
"She had nothing to lose," Williams said of Rybarikova. "I knew I had to play really, really good today."
Williams next faces third-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland on Saturday for a spot in the final.
Radwanska powered her way past Sara Errani of Italy 7-6 (7/1), 7-5 in an earlier quarter-final match.
"She is a great player. She has a great feel for the ball," Williams said of facing Radwanska on Saturday.
It was a powerful display of tennis from the top seed Williams, who hammered seven aces and broke Rybarikova a half dozen times.
"I'm definitely happier with the return game today," Williams said. "I could still use some improvement. She served pretty well, but I was pretty happy with the results from today."
Williams is 8-0 since her fourth-round loss at Wimbledon to Sabine Lisicki.
"I just felt like I was too tight, and just put a lot of pressure on myself there," she said of the loss at Wimbledon. "I just needed to relax more than anything, which is what I'm doing."
Unseeded Romanian Sorana Cirstea also sent defending champion Petra Kvitova packing Friday in the quarter-finals.
"It might come as a surprise for many people," said Cirstea of her upset win. "It's not really a surprise for me, because I know how hard I have been working for the past couple of weeks. "It's nice to see the reward.
