Top seed Serena Williams and defending champion Maria Sharapova remained on course for a heavyweight Madrid Open final showdown with contrasting victories in the last eight of the clay event on Thursday.
Williams, who triumphed in the Spanish capital in 2012 and 2013, when she beat Sharapova in the final, swept past Spain’s Carla Suárez Navarro 6-1 6-3. Sharapova had to recover from dropping the second set and going a break down in the third to beat Caroline Wozniacki 6-1 3-6 6-3.
Suárez Navarro, who had never beaten the American world NO1 in five previous meetings, was powerless to prevent a fired-up Williams securing a last-four clash against the Czech fourth seed Petra Kvitova, or the unseeded Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu, who play their quarter-final later on Thursday.