NEW YORK, Sept 2: Having endured almost six hours of relentless New York rain, Serena Williams needed just 41 minutes of dry weather to annihilate 20th seed Daja Bedanova 6-1 6-1 and reach the quarter-finals of the U.S. Open.

Hunting her third grand slam of the year, the French Open and Wimbledon champion destroyed the Czech with some heavy hitting on a day virtually wiped out by the weather.

The top seed — the champion here in 1999 — pounded 35 straight winners past the willowy Bedanova and never faced a break point.

“I love playing serve and volleyers...I really get a thrill out of that,” she said.

“I have a specific strategy but I will not let anyone in on that, except for maybe Venus,” she said, referring to her elder sister and defending champion here.

Her strategy seemed pretty straightforward on Sunday: smash winners from all over the court, demolish her opponent’s serve and walk off at the end without expending too much energy.

The tactics certainly worked, and she seemed relaxed and confident throughout.

The secret could be in her simple preparation.

“I hit a few serves, a few returns...went to sleep, ate, went to sleep, hung out, laughed,” she smiled.

“That’s what I did today, played a match.”

Serena was the lucky one as the downpour resumed shortly after her victory.

She next plays either Belgian eighth seed Justine Henin or 11th-seeded Slovak Daniela Hantuchova. Their match was cut short by the rain and cancelled for the evening.

The break could help Hantuchova after she took an awkward tumble and hurt her wrist during the match.

Hantuchova easily won the first set 6-1 and was serving at 2-1 down and 40-30 in the second when she lunged for a forehand return in the corner and slid on the baseline, falling on her right wrist.

She was receiving treatment when the rain resumed.

Greg Rusedski had just relinquished a break of serve in the first set of his match against Pete Sampras when they were called off court.

The Briton led 5-4 in the opening set while third-seeded German Tommy Haas had just won the first set of his match against Thomas Enqvist of Sweden.

Organisers were hopeful these floodlit matches could continue later on Sunday night.

By 2020 EDT they had also refused to call off the night session matches on Arthur Ashe stadium court.

Fourth seed Lindsay Davenport was due to play Silvia Farina Elia of Italy and 11th seed Andy Roddick was scheduled to meet Alex Corretja of Spain.

Forecasts were grim though, with rain expected throughout the evening.

Williams’s quickfire victory means tournament organisers will not have to refund the fans who sat in the rain. Event rules state that spectators are only refunded if no matches in a session are completed.—Reuters