Venus Williams moved within two wins of a possible sisterly showdown with Serena in the semi-finals of the US Open by beating German 26th seed Laura Siegemund to reach the fourth round.

Williams came up big on the critical points to make quick work of Siegemund in a 6-1 6-2 victory at the Arthur Ashe Stadium.

The 36-year-old Williams, oldest player in the women’s draw, repelled seven of nine break points held by the German, and capitalised on six of 10 of her own break opportunities.

“Just doing what I have to do, being able to dominate when I need to,” Williams told reporters.

“Being in control of the points, so even if I lose a point, I feel like, OK, I’m in a position to win the point. That’s where I want to be every single time.”

Williams, a seven-times grand slam singles winner and twice US Open champion, has enjoyed some recent success, reaching the semi-finals at Wimbledon and the final at Stanford.

Siegemund appeared poised to offer the American a good test, coming off a productive stretch in which she made the semi-finals in Bucharest, won in Bastad and reached the quarter-finals at the Rio Olympics. But she wilted under the raw power of Williams, who forced her into 32 errors.

That moved Williams into a round of 16 clash against big-serving Czech Karolina Pliskova, a 6-2 6-4 winner over Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

Round four: Sevastova bt Konta 6-4 7-5; Vinci bt Tsurenko 7-6 6-2; Wozniacki bt Keys 6-3 6-4.

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