Serena slayer Konta cruises into quarters, Muguruza withdraws

Washington, August 2: Johanna Konta followed up her stunning win over Serena Williams with a straight-sets victory against Sofia Kenin en route to the Silicon Valley Classic quarter-finals.

handed former world number one and 23-time Grand Slam champion Williams the worst defeat of her illustrious career (6-1, 6-0)

And the British number one backed that up on Wednesday – Konta cruised past Kenin 6-1 6-4 at the WTA International tournament.

"I kind of approached today as a separate challenge," said Konta, who tallied 20 winners and nine aces after 70 minutes on court. "I just played the challenge of the day and the opponent that I had, and really just tried to do the best that I can with that."

.@JohannaKonta continues her winning ways at the @MubadalaSVC!

Downs Kenin, 6-1, 6-4 to reach her third quarterfinal of 2018--> https://t.co/mL5TN4oQZc pic.twitter.com/FVKn0EfWID

— WTA (@WTA) August 2, 2018

Next up for Konta is fourth seed Elise Mertens, who made light work of American wildcard Ashley Kratzer 6-2 6-0.

Top seed Garbine Muguruza, meanwhile, was forced to withdraw ahead of her second-round match midweek.

Muguruza was scheduled to face Victoria Azarenka but the two-time major winner succumbed to a right arm injury.

"I've been feeling some pain in my right arm for a couple of days and realised I am not ready to play the match, so hopefully I can recover for the next tournaments," Muguruza said in a statement.

"The facilities in San Jose are very nice, especially the courts. This is a tournament I always play at the start of the US Open Series so I hope to come back and see all my fans next year."

.@vika7 storms into the @MubadalaSVC quarterfinals!

Routs Blinkova, 6-1, 6-0! pic.twitter.com/uUfPrTF2ec

— WTA (@WTA) August 2, 2018

Lucky loser Anna Blinkova replaced Muguruza in the draw but the Russian was no match for two-time Australian Open champion Azarenka, who eased to a 6-1 6-0 victory.

Elsewhere, Danielle Collins outlasted Vera Lapko 6-1 3-6 6-1 for a spot in the last eight.