DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Wednesday, September 9th 2009, 4:00 AM
She plays with hoop earrings the size of tire rims, and the power of a tractor. Serena Williams didn't just turn one more overmatched opponent into tennis road kill at Arthur Ashe Stadium Tuesday night.
She plowed into the U.S. Open semifinals with an aura of complete invincibility, as if she were daring anybody to try to take her down.
Williams, the No. 2 seed and the defending champion, is now two victories away from her third Grand Slam title of the year, and the 12th of her career. She reached the Final Four with a stunning display of high-octane tennis, punishing a game quarterfinal opponent, No. 10 Flavia Pennetta, 6-4, 6-3, doing it with a serve that clocked as high as 118 mph, running her 2009 Slam record to a ludicrous 23-1.
Next up for Williams - the only player in the whole tournament who hasn't lost a set - is an intriguing matchup with the comebacking tennis mother, Kim Clijsters, the 2005 champion, who took out sister Venus in the fourth round, and did the same to Li Na of China earlier Tuesday.
Clijsters, 26, has beaten the 27-year-old Williams only once in their eight meetings, but she promises to bring a champion's fight to the court.
"She's always been able to step it up at the Grand Slams," Clijsters said. "I mean, I've seen her play here and she has that face where she's like, 'Okay, I'm here to do business.' But that doesn't mean that you don't get chances when you get to play her."
Said Williams of Clijsters: "She's even faster than what she was before. I was thinking maybe I should have a baby, and come back faster. She definitely hasn't lost a step."
Pennetta, who was looking to become the first Italian woman to make a Slam semi, fought off six match points in her fourth-round victory over Vera Zvonareva of Russia. She ran hard, hit hard and played splendid defense, but on a night when Williams is serving so dominantly - she won 30 of her 35 first-service points, and had seven aces - the openings are slimmer than the Mets' playoff hopes.
"I didn't have a lot of chance," Pennetta said. "Today I made a few mistakes on important points, and she just take the chance to close the match."
The first set was on serve until the final game, when Pennetta wobbled, with a double fault and two air-mailed forehands, Williams breaking her at love for the set.
"I needed to step up to the plate, and finally I was able to do that," Williams said.
In the first game of the second set, Pennetta had what would be her only two break points of the night. She netted a forehand on the first, a backhand on the second. Williams held with two aces, broke Pennetta on a double fault in Game 6 for 4-2.
Three games later, Pennetta still fighting hard, Williams finished a marathon rally - maybe the best point of the match - with a crackling forehand winner down the line.
The semifinals are next. Good luck to anyone standing in the way of the tennis tractor.
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