Defending champion Clijsters powered past Serbian Ana Ivanovic for the loss of just 3 games 6-2 6-1. Both players struggled on serve in a scrappy opening set before Clijsters broke twice to take a 5-2 lead.

The overall quality of the match was not of the standard most expected with errors frequently coming off both racquets but Clijsters was the player who was able to take advantage when it mattered the most and wrapped up victory in under an hour.

Third seed Venus Williams was given a tougher test by Israeli 16th seed Shahar Peer before winning 7-6(3) 6-3. The American could not find her usually trusty first serve at times in the first set and admitted afterwards she was still finding her way back after her recent knee injury.

"I'm OK. It helps me not playing the doubles. I'm happy to be here and playing well."

Next up for Venus is French Open Champion Francesca Schiavone who looks to be hitting form at the right moment - demonstrated in seeing off the 20th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-3 6-0 in a confident display.

The Italian, in the quarter-finals at Flushing Meadows for the second time, said: "I feel better than when I [won] the French Open, because I know how to do it and how to win a match like this."