(REUTERS) – Serena Williams battered Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4, 6-4 in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon yesterday, seizing on moments of weakness from the Russian to ram home her advantage.The defending champion, seeking an elusive 22nd grand slam to equal Steffi Graf’s open-era record, took the first set after finding a chink in her opponent’s serving armoury in the ninth game.
Pavlyuchenkova, the 21st seed, went for her shots but never found a way to counter the Williams attack. Nerves told again in the same game of the second set, where a series of errors allowed the American to break and then serve for the match.
The world No.1 wrapped up the tie on her second match point with a 123 mph ace for 11 in total.
Williams joins her sister Venus in the semi-finals tomorrow where she will meet another Russian, Elena Vesnina.
“We are playing doubles later so we are just so glad to both get through to the semi-finals,” Williams said.