Amelie Mauresmo secured her place in the semi-finals of Wimbledon for the second successive year with a straight-sets win over Anastasia Myskina on Centre Court this afternoon.
The number three seed needed just over an hour to secure a 6-3 6-4 victory to set up a last-four clash with world number one Lindsay Davenport.
Mauresmo, who had lost just 15 games in her four matches before today, again used her serve-and-volley game to great effect, which left the 2004 French Open champion with few opportunities to break her rhythm.
The opening three games of the match all went with serve, Mauresmo again coming forward at every opportunity to produce a winner, but with her Russian opponent also finding her range from the baseline.
The Frenchwoman, though, forced a first break point in game four, volleying at the net to great effect, before a long return from Myskina handed her the advantage at 3-1.
Mauresmo promptly held her own serve, to love, against the ninth seed, before an unforced error - netting a backhand - allowed the Russian to break back in game seven.
However, the former world number one was soon in command again, as Myskina then immediately lost her own serve and Mauresmo closed out the set 6-3 in half-an-hour.
Myskina had never reached the quarter-finals at the All England Club before, and had gone about it the hard way this year, with two of her previous matches needing three sets and having spent almost nine hours on court ahead of this afternoon.
With Mauresmo - who has yet to drop a set - leading their head-to-head by five to one, which includes a comfortable third-round victory here in 2002, another struggle looked on the cards for the 23-year-old world number 10.
And so it proved in game five of the second set, when Myskina netted a routine forehand to lose the opening point, from which she failed to recover and trailed
3-2.
Mauresmo - who lost in the semi-finals to Serena Williams here 12 months ago - then faced two break points on her serve in game eight, which Myskina gratefully accepted at the first time of asking with a forehand winner down the right to
level at 4-4.
The number three seed had a chance to break back straight away, but was long with her backhand return. Mauresmo, though, did not waste a second opportunity, this time coming to the net to make no mistake.
That left the 25-year-old serving for the match and place in the semi-finals for the second year running, which she secured to love and completed a 6-3 6-4 victory in one hour and nine minutes.
Afterwards Mauresmo said: "I really wanted to be aggressive and that's what I did from the first point.
"I was able to put a lot of pressure on her and she didn't like it. I'm very happy to go through and hopefully try to make another step in the next match."
