Serena wallops Sugiyama to reach fourth round

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Serena Williams steamed towards a potential a quarter-final showdown with sister Venus by flattening Japan's Ai Sugiyama 6-2 6-1 in the third round of the U.S. Open on Saturday.

The fourth-seeded American had never dropped a set in three previous meetings with the 33-year-old Sugiyama and kept that record intact with an impressive display of power hitting and big serving from the baseline.

Sugiyama tried her best to throw Serena off course but ended up chasing the ball in vain time and again as the former world number one outwitted her with a string of searing groundstrokes.

The 30th seed bowed out by punching a backhand wide on match point, allowing Serena to set up a last 16 date with either France's Severine Bremond or Tathiana Garbin of Italy.

(Reporting by Pritha Sarkar, editing by Trevor Huggins)