Top-ranked Serena Williams advanced to the semifinals at the Sydney International with a 6-2, 6-2 win on Wednesday over Vera Dushevina of Russia.
Dushevina sprayed a forehand wide to give Williams two match points and then double-faulted to finish the match in exactly an hour in a swirling breeze at the Sydney 2000 Olympics venue.
Williams, playing her only warm-up tournament ahead of her attempted title defence at the Australian Open, next plays France’s Aravane Rezai, who had a 6-3, 6-0 win over Italian Flavia Pennetta.
No. 2 Dinara Safina was playing Olympic gold medallist Elena Dementieva later Wednesday in another quarterfinal — a rematch from last year’s Sydney final.
The winner will meet sixth-seeded Victoria Azarenka, who advanced 2-6, 6-2, 7-5 over Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova.
On the men’s side, Lleyton Hewitt started his bid for a fifth Sydney title with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Italian Andreas Seppi, reaching the quarterfinals with one 55-minute victory.
Former top-ranked Hewitt won six straight games, then overcame an early service break in the second set and won six straight games to finish when Seppi double-faulted at match point.
Fourth-seeded Hewitt, a former U.S. Open and Wimbledon champion, squared his career head-to-heads at 2-all with Seppi.
“I’ve had match points against him and ended up losing — that scoreline today looks a lot better,” Hewitt said.
Hewitt next plays 2006 Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis, who ousted sixth-seeded Viktor Troicki of Serbia 7-5, 6-3.
Another Australian advanced to the quarterfinals when Peter Luczak had an upset 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 win over second-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic.
Also advancing were Frenchmen Julien Benneteau and Richard Gasquet — who beat eighth-seeded Benjamin Becker of Germany 6-2, 7-6 (4) — and American Mardy Fish, a 6-1, 6-2 winner over Russia’s Evgency Korolev. — Sapa-AP