Top-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus advanced to the Olympic semifinals on Thursday by beating No 7 Angelique Kerber of Germany 6-4, 7-5 under the Centre Court roof at Wimbledon.

Kerber eliminated Venus Williams on Wednesday, but Azarenka feasted on the left-hander's serve, winning more than half of those points and breaking Kerber six times.

Azarenka, who won her first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in January, seeks her first Olympic medal.

SERENA INTO SEMIS AFTER WOZNIACKI ROUT

Serena Williams remains on course for her first Olympic singles gold medal after crushing Danish eighth seed Caroline Wozniacki 6-0, 6-3 in the quarterfinals.

Serena, a two-time doubles gold medallist with sister Venus, was at her imperious best on Wimbledon's Court One and the American fourth seed, who faces a semifinal clash with world No 1 Victoria Azarenka, is now just two victories away from winning gold.

Williams claimed her magnificent 6-1, 6-0 demolition of Vera Zvonareva in the previous round of the Games topped any of her performances en route to her fifth Wimbledon title last month.

Ominously for her rivals, the 30-year-old was just as dominant against former world No 1 Wozniacki.

Serena has made it her goal to become just the second woman after German legend Steffi Graf to complete the Golden Slam of all four major titles and Olympic singles gold.

Wozniacki never threatened to end Serena's dream and the American quickly secured two breaks to take control in the first set.

There was no let-up from Serena, who hit 13 winners to just one from the Dane in the first set, and the pressure proved too much for the rattled Wozniacki, who surrendered the set with a double-fault.

Wozniacki finally got on the scoreboard in the eighth game of the match.

But that just prompted an even more brutal assault from Serena and the 14-time Grand Slam winner quickly broke again before serving out the win.