Tennis: Last year's runner-up Vera Zvonareva will not be returning to the US Open final after losing to Sam Stosur in the quarter-finals. Seeded second this year, Zvonareva was beaten 6-3 6-3 by the Australian on the Grandstand court at Flushing Meadows on Thursday.
Stosur, the ninth seed, produced a fine display of serving to dispatch the Russian.
Zvonareva could not fashion a single break point in the match as Stosur won 84 per cent of the points behind her first serve.
The Australian's serving prowess enabled her to set the tone and her aggression enabled her to rack up a total of 25 winners compared with just nine from Zvonareva's racquet.
The match was over in just 67 minutes as Stosur moved into the last four for the first time in her career.
Stosur, who made the final of the French Open last season, will now fancy her chances of another Grand Slam final as she will face either Flavia Pennetta or Angelique Kerber in the semis, neither of whom is ranked inside the world's top 20.
Title favourite Serena Williamsmoved into the semi-finals with another straight-sets win.
The American was pushed hard in the first set by Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, a former junior champion at Flushing Meadows, but once she got her nose in front there was only ever going to be one winner.
Williams duly raced through the second set to record a 7-5 6-1 victory.
The three-time former champion had some early struggles on her serve and lost her opening three service games as the first-serve percentage stayed low. However, from 5-5, Williams won eight of the last nine games as she finally got her fearsome serve firing.
The 28th seed has yet to drop a set at this year's tournament.
She told Sky Sports afterwards the start of the match had been "weird".
"I thought 'oh my God, what am I doing?'. But I pulled it through and didn't go too nuts."
She added she hoped to improve her movement ahead of a semi-final against either world number one Caroline Wozniackior Germany's Andrea Petkovic.