SERENA WILLIAMS WINS, CIBULKOVA OUT. QFS OF THE AUSTRALIAN OPEN 2015.

Whatever’s in the air, the world No.1 is now two wins away from that title, producing a performance so punishing in its authority that Dominika Cibulkova didn’t have a chance. 

 With Serena winning their quarterfinal 6-2 6-2 in five minutes more than an hour, she completed her fifth win over last year’s finalist, shrugging off a lingering scratchy cough to produce one of her most clinical displays of the tournament. It may not have looked that way from the start. 

Serena hit four errors in the opening game as Cibulkova put all her pint-sized energy into her serve. The world No.1 got on the board herself a matter of minutes later, and then, calmly and quietly, set about wreaking match-winning havoc. Breaking Cibulkova to 15 with a barrage from the back, Serena wheeled away into a 5-1 lead, allowing the Slovakian just one more game before taking the set. It had been 28 minutes and she’d hardly broken a sweat. Producing 16 winners, eight of them aces, and keeping the majority of rallies short, the 18-time major champion was on a cruise down the Yarra in the early afternoon sun, a welcome break from Melbourne’s rather chilly weather. 
The second set went similarly. Williams broke to love to continue the rout and although she faced two break points when serving at 2-1, she dispatched two lethal serves, one of them an ace, to save both. Breaking again at 4-2 as she forced a forehand error, again from the back, the match was been and gone five minutes later. 
One more ace, her 15th, for match point, and a huge second serve delivery wrapping it all up. Finishing with 31 winners to seven from Cibulkova, 18 unforced errors apiece, it was as good a quarterfinal as Serena could wish for, bringing her total time on court this Australian Open to eight hours and 11 minutes – three hours less than the Isner/Mahut marathon. 
 Where Serena particularly succeeded was in taking time away from Cibulkova, shortening the points and not allowing the Slovakian her favoured habit of pressing and pressing from the back.