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Serena cruises into round of 16

jcSeptember 3, 2016

Serena Williams' quest to break the record for the most ever women's major titles, held jointly with Steffi Graf, is still on course. On Saturday, the American demolished Sweden's Johanna Larsson in straight sets.

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USA US Open 2016 Serena Williams
Image: Reuters/R. Deutsch/USA TODAY Sports

Serena Williams' day at the office at the US Open on Saturday was over after less than an hour. Opponent Johanna Larsson simply had no answer for the American's power, going down meekly in two sets.

Williams won the first three games of the first set, and Larsson could never find a break, as the world number one cantered out to the lead. Set two was an even more one-sided affair, when Williams dropped but a single game and hitting 23 winners to Larsson's five. The final score was 6-2, 6-1.

The victory means that Williams has now won more Grand Slam matches (307) than any other woman in history, eclipsing the pervious mark held by Martina Navratilova.

"That's pretty awesome and what a place to do it, where everything first started," said the 34-year-old.

Williams first Grand Slam was the 1999 US Open. If Williams wins this year's tournament, she'll become the first woman ever to claim 23 major titles.

In other action, fifth seed Simona Halep of Romania needed three sets to defeat Hungary's Timea Babos 6-1, 2-6, 6-4. And Fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland beat France's Caroline Garcia 6-2, 6-3.