Serena looking unstoppable

Serena Williams powered her way into a seventh Wimbledon semi-final with a hugely impressive 7-5 6-3 victory over Li Na on Centre Court this afternoon.

The first two matches on women’s quarter-final day went the way of the underdog but there was no realistic chance of that happening once the defending champion broke in the 11th game of the match and then served out the opening set.

Li put up a brave challenge but Williams was simply too strong, especially on serve, where she blasted 11 aces, and three breaks in the second set proved more than enough, despite a late rally from the Chinese player.

Williams said: “I didn’t have a great practice this morning so I was a little bit nervous, especially playing Li Na, she’s really good, so I was glad I was able to hang in there. I’m so excited to be in the semi-finals.”

The top seed went into the match as an increasingly hot favourite to retain her title following shock exits for sister Venus and Kim Clijsters earlier in the afternoon.

But she was wary of Li, who had won only one of their five previous meetings but had challenged Williams on every occasion, most recently in the Australian Open semi-finals, where the world number one came through in two tie-break sets.

And Li held her own in the early stages, digging herself out of a hole at 15-40 in the fifth game with some impressive shot-making.

Troubling Williams on her serve was another matter, though. The 28-year-old went into the match having served an incredible 62 aces – more than double the total of any of her rivals – and she quickly increased that with three in as many service games.

Li had swatted aside seventh seed Agnieszka Radwanska in the fourth round and she looked poised to move into a 6-5 lead when three winners gave her 40-0.

But two errors and two double faults took Williams to break point, which she took when the Chinese player pushed a volley long. And the defending champion wrapped up the set in 45 minutes when she powered a backhand winner down the line.

Li battled through a deuce game to get on the board at the start of the second set, and the ninth seed even tried coming to the net to break up the barrage of power from Williams.

But her resistance cracked at 2-2 as a series of errors from the baseline handed her opponent a second break of the match.

Williams really was playing terrifically well and Li was forced to push ever closer to the lines in an effort to stay in contention. That brought inevitable errors and the top seed picked up a second consecutive break when the Chinese player overcooked a second serve.

That took Williams to 5-2, but Li was not finished and a fierce backhand to force the error from the 28-year-old American at the net gave her two break points – her first of the match.

The first came and went in the blink of a Williams serve but on the second the Chinese player exploited a poor volley from her opponent to power a winner down the line.

It seemed simply to be delaying the inevitable, and so it proved as Williams broke for the third game in a row when Li’s forehand drifted wide.