This content was published 11 years ago. It may refer to a past edition of the Internazionali d’Italia.

Twenty one. That’s the number of matches that Serena Williams has won in a row after easily beating Dominika Cibulkova 6-0, 6-1 to set up a quarter-final meeting with Carla Suarez Navarrow. It is the third time she has achieved such a sequence but she is desperate to make it not just twenty two but several more than that number as she hunts for yet more glory and the trophies that go with it. Certainly the Floridian is in imperious form, dropping just five games in two matches thus far as she reaches the business end of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia. Williams’ dominance is such she has dropped just nine sets of tennis in the entire year to date, but she is just not the kind of character to get carried away, instead preferring to keep her feet firmly on the ground. “Nothing is ever perfect and I learned that last year when I felt perfect and so I am still in a danger zone,” she claimed. “I don’t remember  my previous winning stread – I hope I can get to 22 plus 7 and the rest of the matches that I have here and I want to play Wimbledon and so it would be dangerous to lose right now. I can’t remember the winning streaks, I think I won the Australian Open and another tournament but I can’t remember.” Serena’s only problem at the moment seems to be preparing her hair for each round. “It takes a long time and a good dry out,” she joked.  “I have colour and my hair is really crazy and that is why I had a hat on. I can’t comb it out and when I get home it takes about 30 minutes to comb it out because it is so curly.” Jelena Jankovic’s 7-6, 7-5 victory over Li Na was a highlight on Thursday with the 2007 and 2008 winner setting up a match-up with qualifier Simona Halep. A revitalised Jankovic is a likely semi-final opponent for Williams but it is still difficult to see who can give the world number one more than a bad hair day on current evidence.