Olympic champion Elena Dementieva left Switzerland's Patty Schnyder breathless as she reached the US Open semi-finals with a brisk 6-2 6-3 victory. Since their rivalry stretched back more than a decade, Dementieva's style of play should have been familiar to Schnyder. Instead the Swiss, who was used to earning free points thanks to Dementieva's weak serve, was toppled by an opponent who was barely recognisable.
Just moments after being on the receiving end of the 76-minute battering, Schnyder tipped her hat to the Russian fifth seed.
"It's the best she's played against me. I lost to a great champion today," Schnyder told reporters after she fell 10-7 behind in their head-to-head meetings.
"I played some really good games but didn't end up winning all of them... there was not much I could have done differently.
"She didn't give me too many chances to step in or even breathe a bit during the rallies. She was just on top of me."
Dementieva was pleasantly surprised as she managed to extend her winning run to 11 matches with the minimum of fuss.
"I really expected a tough match against her and I feel very pleased the way I was playing today," said Dementieva, the 2004 runner-up in New York. "It's important to win in two sets, especially coming from Beijing. Extra time for recovery, it's always good."
The 26-year-old Russian wasted little time in making her intentions clear as she broke the Swiss in the third game of the opening set after the 15th seed whipped a forehand wide.
Dementieva kept on cranking up the power and enjoyed an 80 per cent success rate on her first serve, and with her groundstrokes also hitting the target, Schnyder was soon left deflated.
"Today she had an unbelievably high percentage of first serve, it was pretty fast as well," said Schnyder, who at 29 was the oldest woman left in the draw. "Before I used to have more time against her, she would struggle a bit with her backhands. So she's really improved and is playing with so much confidence and playing really well."
As she prepares to face either second seed Jelena Jankovic or Austrian Sybille Bammer for a place in the final, Dementieva still insists she has to improve.
"I'm very excited to be in the semis but I'm sure I need to improve my game and play a better match if I want to go to the final," said the world number six, who will topple world number one Ana Ivanovic if she wins the Flushing Meadows title.
"I'm not playing at my best... I'm so far away from being perfect."