US Open 2016: Serena Williams on course for Grand Slam No. 23 after fourth-round procession

Updated 06/09/2016 at 07:51 GMT

Serena Williams cruised into the quarter-finals of the US Open with a routine win over Yaroslava Shvedova.

Serena Williams of the United States celebrates after winning match point against Yarolslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan (not pictured) on day eight of the 2016 U.S. Open tennis tournament at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Williams won 6-2, 6-3

Image credit: Reuters

Home favourite Williams was always likely to have too much for an opponent 52 places below her in the WTP rankings, and so it proved, with the American surging into an early 3-0 lead in the first set and never relinquishing control of the match.

Serena, who is targeting a fourth US Open title in five years, will meet Simona Halep in the quarter-finals, but has been denied a chance of meeting her sister in the semis after Venus’ defeat to Karolina Pliskova earlier on Monday.

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Williams, again kitted out in her eye-catching “wonder woman” sleeves (as she called them earlier in the tournament, looked the part from the start against her Kazakhstani opponent, playing some blistering ground strokes en-route to a 6-2 6-3 win.

Highlights: Serena beats Shvedova to make history

World number two Angelique Kerber is also progressing nicely towards a mouth-watering meeting in the Flushing Meadows final, with Williams looking to go above Steffi Graf's tally of 22 Grand Slam titles and move to within one of Magaret Court's all-time record.

Monday's win over Shvedova took Williams to 308 total Grand Slam victories, one clear of Roger Fededer at the top of the charts - something that Serena had been unaware of.

Oh wow, it is really exciting, this is where it all started so it is always so magical out here for me but 308 sounds pretty good.

The six-time US Open champion has reached at least the semi-finals in all of the last eight Grand Slams, winning five of those and making each of the finals this season.