Ruthless Angelique Kerber demolishes Madison Keys in 51 minutes to reach semis

The 2016 champion, who extended her 2018 winning streak to 14 matches, simply overwhelmed the American 17th seed in Wednesday’s opening encounter on the Rod Laver Arena, securing victory after just 51 minutes on court.

Awaiting the 30-year-old 21st seed in the last four will be world number one Simona Halep, who beat sixth seed Karolina Pliskova in straight sets.

With a 6-1 record over Keys going into this quarter-final encounter, Kerber continued to exert her dominance when breaking twice to take a 3-0 lead in the opening set.

Keys finally got on board in the fifth game, but last year’s US Open finalist was powerless to prevent Kerber from breaking again to win the first set after just 22 minutes.

Kerber, who won her first title since the 2016 US Open when picking up the Sydney International two weeks ago, struck a body blow early in the second set when breaking Keys in the second game.

Keys halted Kerber’s run of five games in a row, and then unexpectedly brought the set back on serve when breaking the German to love.

However, the parity was short-lived as Kerber took the next three games to seal the victory in under an hour.