World number one Serena Williams breezed into a US Open semi-final clash against China’s Li Na by crushing 18th-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro 6-0 6-0 on Tuesday on the Spaniard’s 25th birthday.
Reigning French Open champion Williams, a 16-time Grand Slam winner seeking her fifth US Open crown and ninth title of the year, will next face Li, the 2011 French Open champion who ousted Russian 24th seed Ekaterina Makarova.
Earlier, fifth seed Li Na advanced to the US Open semi-finals for the first time on Tuesday with a 6-4 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 victory over Russian Ekaterina Makarova.
“I’m so happy,” Li said. “After losing the second set I was a little disappointed because I was 4-2 up in the tie-breaker, but I told myself point by point to try my best on the court.”
Li reached a final-four showdown against the winner of a later match between 16-time grand slam champion Serena Williams, who is seeking her fifth US Open crown and ninth title of the year, and Spanish 18th seed Carla Suarez Navarro, who has never won a title.
“I will lie down in bed and take some chips and watch,” Li said.
Li fired 44 winners to only 15 by Makarova, who upset Williams in last year’s Australian Open fourth round but fell to 0-4 all-time against Li, who said her nerves kept her from being more aggressive and coming to the net.
“I was so nervous,” she said. “I wish I could do it more in the next round.”
Also advancing was two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka, who reached the quarter-finals by beating Serbian 13th seed Ana Ivanovic 4-6 6-3 6-4 in a match postponed from Monday due to rain.
The 24-year-old second seed from Belarus took advantage of Ivanovic’s 42 unforced errors and broke the former world No.1 nine times in the match, winning despite surrendering seven breaks herself and hitting just 21 winners.
“There’s a lot of room to improve, but I don’t think that my serve was a deal breaker of those games I lost,” Azarenka said.
Azarenka, who lost to Williams in last year’s US Open final, will play for a semi-final spot against Slovakia’s 48th-ranked Daniela Hantuchova, with whom she has split four career meetings.
“She’s playing the best tennis of her life,” Azarenka said. “She is really playing well and has a lot of confidence. We hit with each other a lot so there will be no surprises there.”
Azarenka, a semi-finalist in five of the past seven Grand Slams, defeated world number one Williams in the final at Cincinnati in the last big US Open tune-up event, securing her role as the main threat to Williams’ reign.
