Serena Williams cruise into Wimbledon semis with win over Pavlyuchenkova

Serena Williams convincingly dismantled Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4, 6-4 in the ongoing Wimbledon Competition. The 25-year-old fought gamely but Williams was in complete control, breaking her opponent in the ninth game of each set and never having to face a break point of her own in a comprehensive victory.

“I’m excited to have been able to win that one and get through. It feels really good,” said an utterly composed Williams afterwards. “One thing I’ve learned this year is just to focus on the match.”

The Williams serve was at its best on a bright, breezy, becalmed Centre Court. Her ratio of points won on the 67% of occasions on which she got her first attempt in was a brutal 90%.

“I thought today she was there since the first points to the last,” said Pavlyuchenkova, who admitted to being very nervous before the match, so desperate was she to give a good account of herself on a surface that is far from her favourite.

“I thought I had not many chances at all on the return. She was serving amazingly today. There was a bit of breeze out there as well. I thought that was helping her a little bit more.”

The Russian, playing in her first Wimbledon quarter-final and making only her third singles appearance at this stage in any grand slam, was far from overawed in the early exchanges. Instead, it was Williams who, if anything, cut the most frustrated figure.

Among the usual brilliant winners, she also sent makeable shots long and wide. After missing one easy chance, Williams screamed to the sky as if trying to get herself going.

Then came the gear shift of which champions are made, however. In the ninth game, Williams turned up the pressure and the Russian crumbled.

Pavlyuchenkova sent a forehand into the net and found herself on the receiving end of some ferocious Williams groundstrokes to give the six-times Wimbledon winner three break points.

Tamely surrendering with a double fault, Pavlyuchenkova was then powerless to stop Williams winning the next service game to love to close out the first set.

It was a similar story in the second set, with Williams ratcheting up the pressure until Pavlyuchenkova cracked in the ninth game and the world No1 – who has been ensconced in that position for 177 straight weeks – wrapped up proceedings in the following game with an ace.

On Friday, Williams seemed at times to be at war with herself as she battled back from a set down to defeat compatriot Christina McHale in the second round, slamming her racket into the hallowed turf at the end of the first set before chucking it away.

But since then she has plotted a serene path past Annika Beck and Svetlana Kuznetsova, remaining on course for a possible Centre Court date with her older sister Venus in the final on Saturday.

Afterwards, she said she was “so happy” both had made it through to the semi-finals at the ages of 34 and 36 respectively. Williams said she would be desperate for her sister to win if she failed to make the final. On this evidence, there is little chance of that.

As so often before, Williams is hitting her groove as the tournament moves towards the business end. If she has uncharacteristically stuttered at the last in failing to claim title No22 at her three previous grand slams, Williams remains very much on course to do so here.

First, she must meet another Russian, the unseeded Elena Vesnina. She easily overcame the Slovakian 19th seed Dominika Cibulkova in straight sets 6-2, 6-2.

Vesnina’s power and the pace were too much for Cibulkova, who had said she would have to postpone her wedding this weekend if she reached the final.

The Russian world No 50 once tipped as a future champion by Justine Henin a decade ago, has since carved out a career as a doubles specialist but will now face Williams in her first grand slam semi-final at the age of 29.

She said she had never stopped believing, despite dropping out of the top 100 at the turn of the year and that it would be a dream to face the American on Centre Court.

“I’m really happy that it didn’t break me up. I think the difficult times, every single player has to go through it because it makes you better, it makes you stronger,” she said.