Serena Williams and Elena Vesnina play Wimbledon 2016 semi-finals

Serena Williams will play Elena Vesnina in the semi-finals of Wimbledon after beating Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4 6-4.

The world No 1 remains on course to win her 22nd Grand Slam. Earlier in the day, sister Venus also progressed to the semi-final, and the two could meet in Saturday’s final.

Vesnina produced a similarly emphatic display, cruising to a 6-2 6-2 win over Dominika Cibulkova.

Williams was rarely troubled by Pavlyuchenkova, serving well to maintain control throughout the match. After exchanging four service games each, Williams played a winning backhand return to clinch a break.

After serving for the set, Williams continued pressure her opponent with powerful groundstrokes. Pavlyuchenkova struggled to contain the American, and the breakthrough came once again in the ninth game of the set, as Pavlyuchenkova found the net.

With Williams serving for the match, the will of Pavlyuchenkova failed and the top seed ended the match with an ace, setting up a tie with Vesnina.

The Russian, who has won two major doubles events, had never before gone beyond the fourth round of a singles Grand Slam, but found herself in complete control against Cibulkova. Breaking twice, Vesnina raced into an early lead and was never troubled.

Although Cibulkova fought back until the end, she was unable to break serve and it was Vesnina who progressed to Thursday’s semi-final match up. It now frees up Cibulkova’s diary for the weekend, so that her wedding can go ahead as planned.