Serena Williams cruised into the quarter-finals for the eighth time in her career as she thrashed Daniela Hantuchova.

Ths second seed, twice a champion at the All England Club, was once again in dominant form as he sauntered to a 6-3 6-1 win in just 56 minutes.

The pair traded early breaks of serve but Williams used her clubbing forehand to edge ahead with a another break in game six.

That proved enough to take the first set and Williams broke again in the first game of set two to take full control.

From there, Hantuchova won just one more game as Serena moved closer to another all-Williams final with sister Venus.

Next up for the Amercian will be a meeting with eighth seed Victoria Azarenka, who edged out Nadia Petrova in a much tighter encounter.

Azarenka, who beat Williams in the final in Miami earlier this season and also led her at the Australian Open before quitting with heat exhaustion, won 7-6 (7/5) 2-6 6-3 in two hours and 25 minutes.

Petrova appeared to be struggling in the heat early in the match and called for the trainer at one point.

However, she recovered to lead 2-1 with a break in the final set before Azarenka hit back immediately and pushed on for a narrow victory.

The Belarus player, unhappy with a line call, had accused the umpire of "ruining the game'' during the second set before going over to sarcastically shake the hand of the line judge.