SERENA WILLIAMS crushed top seed Justine Henin 6-2, 6-0 in 80 minutes to reach the semifinals of the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, the United States, on Tuesday.

Williams won the final 10 games by playing nearly flawless tennis, as Henin fell apart after double-faulting three times to go 4-2 behind.

As a result, there was none of the drama usually generated by the rivalry between the two players.

A few hours later, Svetlana Kuznetsova prevented an all-Williams semifinal. Kuznetsova, the 2006 Key Biscayne champion, eliminated three-time winner Venus Williams 6-4, 6-4.

"I'm always happy for Serena to win," Venus said. "It would have been obviously very exciting for me to win, too, but it just didn't happen."

Venus was hurt by eight double faults, and she converted only one of six break points.

Serena had lost her previous three meetings to Henin, all in 2007, at the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open ?a although the American did beat the Belgina in the final at Key Biscayne, a year ago, overcoming two championship points in the process.

Eighth seed Serena proved she can win matches with more than mere power, passing Henin on both sides, lobbing to stay in rallies, chasing down a drop shot to hit a winner and even playing some serve and volley tennis.

Henin, meanwhile, struggled even with her signature backhand, and her serve went haywire. She won only five of 20 points on her second serve and double-faulted for the fifth time to end the match.

On the men's side, world No. 1 Roger Federer defeated unseeded Jose Acasuso of Argentina 7-6, 6-2 to reach the last eight. Federer has not gone this long into a season without winning a championship since 2000 ?a the last year he failed to win a title.

Ninth-seeded American James Blake is also through to the quarterfinals after claiming a 6-3, 6-4 win over Czech Radek Stepanek.

Igor Andreev advanced with a 6-4, 7-6 win over Guillermo Canas, however, fellow Russian Dmitry Tursunov lost 6-2, 6-2 to 10th-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych.(SD-Agencies)