Serena Williams moved to within two victories of equaling Steffi Graf's 22 Grand Slam titles as she brushed aside Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the Wimbledon quarterfinals Tuesday.
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Williams' 6-4, 6-4 win sealed a semifinal matchup against Elena Vesnina for the top seed and kept her on course for a clash against her sister, Venus, in Saturday's final.
A successful defense of her title at the All England Club would move Williams level with Graf, and it would leave her just two behind Margaret Court's record of 24.
World No.1, and then some...
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 5, 2016
Serena is into her 10th #Wimbledon SF after a clinical 6-4 6-4 win over Pavlyuchenkova pic.twitter.com/DFMU9hnR3a
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Williams was quickly on the attack on Centre Court as she picked up where she left off against Svetlana Kuznetsova, the American not enduring a tough first set like she had done on Monday.
The world No. 1's forehand power enabled her to control rallies, and she could have moved ahead earlier had a few unforced errors not crept into her game.
Pavlyuchenkova kept pace with Williams for the opening eight games of the match, but in the ninth, Williams found her opening and duly converted it with a string of powerful groundstrokes.
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Having served out the set, Williams looked in no mood to hang around with another step up in her level, but Pavlyuchenkova was not going quietly. The Russian found some crisp winners much to the frustration of her illustrious opponent.
The ninth game of the set proved to be decisive once again as Williams found a way through. She served out superbly to seal her progression to the last four and a meeting with Vesnina.