NEW YORK

From an ace on the first point to a stinging return on the last, Serena Williams was close to perfect in the U.S. Open quarterfinals.

The score said it all Tuesday night: 6-0, 6-0.

Yes, Williams is looking better and better with each match at the year’s final Grand Slam tournament. With two more wins – no matter the exact scores – she’ll earn a fifth title at Flushing Meadows and 17th major championship overall.

The No. 1-ranked and No. 1-seeded Williams shut out 18th-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain, the first “double bagel” in a quarterfinal at Flushing Meadows since 1989, when 18-time major title winner Martina Navratilova did it to Manuela Maleeva.

“When you play against Serena, you know these things can happen,” Suarez Navarro said.

Williams won 53 of 71 points and dominated pretty much every statistical category. The first set took all of 19 minutes. The second was slower, lasting 33 minutes, but no less lopsided.

Williams was asked whether she’d describe her performance as close to flawless.

“Of course not,” the defending champion said with a laugh. “I played good, though. I played really good. I was just more focused than anything. You know, I like to believe there is room for improvement.”

That might be bad news for her opponent in Friday’s semifinals, 2011 French Open champion Li Na of China.

Asked in an on-court interview if her game is peaking, Williams replied: “No. Not yet. I hope not. I’m just trying to do the best that I can.”

Through five matches, Williams has dropped a total of 13 games so far. For comparison’s sake, know this: Suarez Navarro lost more games than that in her previous match alone, 15, while eliminating No. 8 Angelique Kerber.

That victory, and her seeding, should have demonstrated that Suarez Navarro is quite capable of playing well, too.

But not on this evening. Not against Williams, who is 65-4 with eight championships in 2013.

Going back to the start of Wimbledon last year, the 31-year-old American is 96-5 with 13 trophies, including from three of the last five Grand Slam tournaments plus the London Olympics.

“The conditions were so tough, so it definitely was not her best tennis (Tuesday),” Williams said about Suarez Navarro, who was playing in her third career major quarterfinal Tuesday, which happened to be her 25th birthday.

Tough conditions, huh? That swirling wind in Arthur Ashe Stadium sure did not appear to bother Williams one bit. She wound up with a 20-3 edge in winners. She made fewer unforced errors, 12-9. She won 23 of 26 points on first serves.

“I’ve been playing here for, like, 50 years,” Williams said with a laugh. “I’ve kind of gotten used to the conditions. Even though it’s difficult to play each year, I’m getting a little bit better with it.”

After their quick-as-can-be match, defending men’s champion Andy Murray went into Ashe and encountered some problems along the way to a 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 victory over 65th-ranked Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan in the fourth round.

Next for Murray is a quarterfinal against No. 9 Stanislas Wawrinka. A day after his Swiss Davis Cup teammate and friend Roger Federer lost, Wawrinka reached the round of eight at the U.S. Open for the second time by beating 5-seed Tomas Berdych, the 2010 Wimbledon runner-up, 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (6), 6-2 in Louis Armstrong Stadium at night.

In the afternoon, top-seeded Novak Djokovic won 45 of 53 service points while eliminating 43rd-ranked Marcel Granollers 6-3, 6-0, 6-0 in a grand total of only 79 minutes.

U.S. Open

NEW YORK – A look at Tuesday’s play at the $34.3-million U.S. Open tennis championships in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.
Weather: Mostly sunny and comfortable. High of 82.
Attendance: Day, 23,953; night, 20,868; total, 44,821.
Men’s Winners: Fourth Round: No. 1 Novak Djokovic, No. 3 Andy Murray, No. 9 Stanislas Wawrinka and No. 21 Mikhail Youzhny.
Men’s Losers: No. 5 Tomas Berdych, Marcel Granollers, Lleyton Hewitt and Denis Istomin.
Women’s Winners: Fourth Round – No. 2 Victoria Azarenka. Quarterfinals – No. 1 Serena Williams and No. 5 Li Na.
Women’s Losers: Fourth Round – No. 13 Ana Ivanovic. Quarterfinals – No. 18 Carla Suarez Navarro and No. 24 Ekaterina Makarova.
Stat of the Day: Williams’ “double bagel,” a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Suarez Navarro was the first in a U.S. Open women’s quarterfinal since Martina Navratilova beat Manuela Maleeva in 1989.
Quote of the Day: “Of course not. I played good, though. I played really good,” Williams said when asked if her performance Tuesday night was close to flawless.
Wednesday on Court: Quarterfinals – Men, No. 2 Rafael Nadal vs. No. 19 Tommy Robredo, No. 4 David Ferrer vs. Richard Gasquet; Women, No. 2 Victoria Azarenka vs. Daniela Hantuchova, No. 10 Roberta Vinci vs. Flavia Pennetta.
Wednesday on TV: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tennis Channel; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., ESPN2.
On This Date (Sept. 4, 1992): Jimmy Connors plays his final U.S. Open match, losing in the second round to Ivan Lendl, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-0.
Associated Press