Williams advanced to the semifinals of the Bank of the West Classic with little trouble Friday, beating the fifth-seeded Schnyder 6-3, 6-1 in just 54 minutes.
The match began more than an hour later than scheduled because Ai Sugiyama needed 2 hours, 44 minutes to win her quarterfinal over Dominika Cibulkova 6-7 (4), 7-6 (5), 5-3, retired. Cibulkova stopped playing because of cramping in her left leg with Sugiyama serving at 40-0 for the match.
But that extra delay proved to be no trouble for Williams.
“No one can kill time the way I can,” she said. “I’m a professional time killer. I can sit for three hours and I couldn’t tell you what I did. If it was an Olympic sport, I’d be a 20-time gold medal winner.”
Schnyder had won three of five meetings against Williams, including a match in Zurich last year when Williams retired after losing the first nine games. But Schnyder was unable to find her groove against Williams this time and went down meekly.
Williams will take on qualifier Aleksandra Wozniak in the semifinals on Saturday. Wozniak beat Samantha Stosur 6-2, 5-7, 6-4. Wozniak beat Stosur 6-4, 6-2 in qualifying, but Stosur still ended up in the main draw as a “lucky loser” when Lindsay Davenport withdrew with a right knee injury.
“I just felt like, ’Hi again. Here we meet again in the quarterfinals,”’ Wozniak said. “For me it was a big deal to win again in this match.”
Williams opened the match with three straight forehand winners, and the result was never really in doubt despite Williams hitting four double faults in her first two service games and five overall.
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