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Venus Williams crushes Kournikova

In an utterly dominating performance, Venus Williams crushed Anna Kournikova 6-1, 6-3 to rush into the semi-finals of the $500,000 Bank of the West Classic in Palo Alto, California on Friday.

World number one Lindsay Davenport also advanced to the semis, schooling her doubles partner, Corina Morariu, 6-3, 6-3.

The second-seeded Williams owned a 3-0 edge over sixth seed Kournikova entering the match, but the previous encounters of tennis's "Spice Girls" had been intriguing, two of them going to three sets.

But this time, Williams played powerful, nearly error-free tennis, winning the vast majority of their heated backhand crosscourt rallies, staying more than even from her weaker forehand side and serving with tremendous authority.

"When anyone tries to hit hard with me that's when they are going to lose," Williams said.

Kournikova appeared to be lacking any comprehensive game plan and seemed confused as to which shot combinations might get her into the match.

She fought Williams to 3-3 in the second set, but was broken to 3-4 when she casually dumped an easy forehand into the net. Williams ran out the one hour, seven minute match by holding at love to 5-3 and won the contest with a picture perfect drop volley.

"I'm a good player," Williams said. "I was serving better, I have a lot of power and a lot of speed, when I'm set up for a shot I can strike it and when I"m on the run I can generate a lot of power. Maybe she felt a lot of pressure from me. I played well and was calm."

Despite never seriously threatening Williams, the wildly popular Kournikova - who has yet to win a title in her nearly four-year career - said she played well.

"I knew she had a very powerful game and went out there and tried to play deep and mix it up a little bit," Kournikova said. "I didn't try to give her any angles. I had little time to get to the net because she played deep. But we had pretty good rallies from the baseline and she was just more powerful and played really consistent. Maybe I should have mixed it up more."

Williams will play fourth seed Amanda Coetzer of South Africa, who came back from a match point down in the second set to beat eighth seed Sandrine Testud of France 2-6, 7-5, 6-2.

In the second set, the normally calm Coetzer lost her head at 4-5, deuce, just before Testud's match point, cracking her racket on a courtside chair and earning a warning from the umpire. But Coetzer smacked a forehand volley winner to save the match-point, and ground down Testud from there on out.

Davenport will face American veteran Amy Frazier, who beat Luxembourg's Anne Kremer 7-5, 6-0.

UNI