London, June 30: Venus Williams avenged her shock French Open defeat by Vera Zvonareva to storm into the Wimbledon quarter-finals for the sixth straight year here today. Heavy overnight rain had delayed the start of the match for an hour and Williams appeared determined not to be kept waiting around a minute longer than necessary as she raced to a 5-0 lead in the opening set.
Zvonareva put up more resistance in the second set but she was unable to prevent the American from completing a 6-1 6-3 victory in exactly one hour.
Williams, bidding to add a third Wimbledon crown to her 2000 and 2001 titles at the All England Club, now faces 1999 champion Lindsay Davenport in the quarter-finals. Davenport, the fifth seed and winner here in 1999, ended the challenge of Japan's Shinobu Asagoe 6-4 6-1.
Serena Williams motored into the quarter-finals, crushing Russian 15th seed Elena Dementieva 6-2 6-2.
Belgian second seed Kim Clijsters showed no mercy to doubles partner Ai Sugiyama of Japan as she tore into the quarter-finals with a 6-3 6-2 fourth round win. Clijsters, quarter-finalist two years ago for her best previous showing here, now meets an unseeded player in either Italy's Silvia Farina Elia or Paola Suarez of Argentina.
Jennifer Capriati, the US eighth seed, beat Russian 10th seed Anastasia Myskina 6-2 6-3 and now meets defending champion and top-seeded compatriot Serena Williams. Bureau Report