NEW YORK, Aug 30 - Serena Williams steamed towards
a potential a quarter-final showdown with sister Venus by
flattening Japan's Ai Sugiyama 6-2 6-1 in the third round of the
U.S. Open on Saturday.
The fourth-seeded American had never dropped a set in three
previous meetings with the 33-year-old Sugiyama and kept that
record intact with an impressive display of power hitting and
big serving from the baseline.
Sugiyama tried her best to throw Serena off course but ended
up chasing the ball in vain time and again as the former world
number one outwitted her with a string of searing groundstrokes.
The 30th seed bowed out by punching a backhand wide on match
point, allowing Serena to set up a last 16 date with either
France's Severine Bremond or Tathiana Garbin of Italy.
(Reporting by Pritha Sarkar, editing by Trevor Huggins)