Serena cruises into Toronto quarters

Toronto: World number two Serena Williams raced into the quarter-finals of the Toronto Cup on Thursday with a 6-1, 6-4 demolition of Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko.

Williams needed only 64 minutes on a blustery centre court to dispose of the world number 33 and restore a bit of family honour after the Ukrainian`s sister Kateryna had knocked out older sibling Venus in the second round.Back on centre court just 15 hours after a second round victory over Yaroslava Shvedova, the Wimbledon and Australian Open champion charged to a 5-0 lead on her way to taking the opening set. The American broke Bondarenko at the start of the second but then suffered a momentary lapse, allowing her opponent back into the contest as the Ukrainian swept the next three games. Williams, however, was quickly back on track winning the last three games to clinch the match and set up a quarter-final meeting with Czech qualifier Lucie Safarova, who advanced with a 7-6, 6-4 win over China`s Zheng Jie. "I was trying to be perfect and just couldn`t get my serve in and I got frustrated," said Williams explaining her second set blip. "I thought I played pretty well yesterday, I was a little disappointed in myself today after playing so well." "I thought if I can keep up my form I`m on my way to glory and today I didn`t play as well." It was a bad day for the Bondarenko sisters, Alona joined at the exit by Kateryna who fell 7-5, 6-3 to 14th seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland. Fourth seeded Russian Elena Dementieva booked her spot in the last eight with a ragged 6-1, 1-6, 6-4 win over Israel`s Shahar Peer. Dementieva romped through the opening set in 27 minutes but was unable to hold her serve even once in the second as Peer fought back to level the match. The errors continue to pile up in the third set until Dementieva finally clinched victory with a break on her fifth match point. Next up for the Russian is Australian Samantha Stosur, who knocked out sixth seed and French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in the second round before beating Frenchwoman Virginie Razzano 6-3, 6-1 in the next round. Bureau Report