NEW YORK, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Eighth seed Serena Williams of the United States and fifth seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine both took down their respective opponents in straight sets to set up a blockbuster women's singles semifinal at the ongoing US Open on Tuesday.
23-time Grand Slam champion Williams exhibited a stunning display of form as she overpowered 18th-seeded Wang Qiang of China 6-1, 6-0 in quarterfinals in just 44 minutes while Svitolina maintained her dominance over no.16 seed Johanna Konta of Great Britain with a 6-4, 6-4 win.
The 37-year-old Williams is seeking a 24th major title to match Australian legend Margaret Court's longstanding record.
"It feels good," Williams said of the one-sided match against Wang. "It feels like this is what I've been training for. This is how hard I've been working. It feels like, you know, hard work pays off when that happens."
The American was in devastating form from start to finish, hitting 25 winners to just ten unforced errors, and she never faced a break point.
Wang, who upset world number two Ashleigh Barty from Australia in the previous round, was left unable to replicate that form by Williams' dominance. The Chinese number one did not hit any winners during the clash and lost all five of the break points she faced.
"I think she's really a great player. Yeah, just great. I don't know what to say," said the 27-year-old Wang. "Her power, I could not handle it. Just too much for me. And she gave me a lot of pressure. So it's not easy to play against her."
"I need to build my muscle, try to be more powerful. Just need to do more on everything."
Svitolina, who is yet to drop a set at the US Open, struck four aces and 16 winners to only 13 unforced errors to post her fifth win in as many meetings against Konta. With the win, she became the first ever Ukrainian semifinalist at Flushing Meadows.
"I think I'm generally stronger," Svitolina said. "Mentally I'm handling the pressure points better. For sure, sometimes it's possible that you're not there on that day, not playing your best. But you try to find your own path, your own way how to handle those kind of moments."
Williams leads their head-to-head record 4-1, but Svitolina did win their most recent meeting, which was a shock upset at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro while Williams was world number one.
"Svitolina is obviously a fighter," Williams said. "She gets a lot of balls back. She doesn't make a lot of mistakes. She's one of those players that does everything really well. So I have to do everything well, too."
