Serena Williams Romps at U.S. Open and Will Face Ekaterina Makarova in the Semifinals

Three games into her match against Flavia Pennetta on Wednesday night, Serena Williams had been broken twice and trailed by 3-0.

So relieved and excited to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal for the first time this year, Williams seemed to be facing the ghosts of her lost majors again. But she did not see it that way.

“I felt like it’s not the end of the world,” Williams said. “You can just win one game at a time.”

Williams did that six times in a row to take the first set and dominated the second for a 6-3, 6-2 victory over the 11th-seeded Pennetta. Williams, the two-time defending United States Open champion, has a 19-match winning streak in Flushing Meadows.

Rather than adding pressure, lackluster losses at the previous three majors have helped Williams relax.

“It’s so easy now because it’s almost a joke for me because I have done little to no winning in the majors,” she said, adding: “I don’t have to win anymore. Everything now is just extra.”