Serena arranges Kirilenko exit plan

Serena Williams can sometimes be a little slow out of the gates and if players have any notions of success against her this is the time to act on them.  14th seed Maria Kirilenko had just that chance tonight.  In her fourth round match with the American, she won the first three points of the opening Williams service game to leave her 3 break points.
Serena nonchalantly saved all three, the third with  an ace, and from that moment, Kirilenko enjoyed nothing of the match.

Williams presented her opponent with a glorious serving exhibition, hardly missing with her first attempts, and not allowing Kirilenko any more points for the remainder of the set when she received the third seed rockets.

That sort of limitation makes a difficult proposition even harder to contemplate, and Maria did well to maintain concentration and hold serve initially.  With Serena hitting her forehand with such purity and power, and returning the Russian serve so efficiently,  the break in the fourth game was met with surprise only that it took this long to achieve.

The 3-1 lead extended to 4-2, with more credit due to the 14th seed for resisting the temptation to drop her bundle and surrender to the irresistible force that Serena generated tonight.

At 2-5 however, Williams deemed proceedings to have gone sufficiently overtime and organised the cessation to first set frivolities.  The two agreed on service break terms with a comfortable settlement for Maria in return giving the game to Serena and the first set 6-2.

Serena's second set of tennis was no less dominant than the first with Maria's serve being monstered at every opportunity.  The court coverage impressed, as did just about all other parts of the Williams game, as she did just enough to guarantee that this set would come at a cost of points and not games.

Often it could have been a junior who had become lost and wandered onto the wrong court, so far out of her depth did Kirilenko appear.  Sure Maria played below her potential but much of this was deternined by the unwillingness of Serena to allow her to produce the tennis of which she is capable and has previously demonstrated.

Serena Williams into a quarter final 6-2 6-0.