By Frank Pingue
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Serena Williams moved another step closer to a record-tying 24th career Grand Slam title with a comfortable 6-3 6-2 victory over Czech Karolina Muchova on Friday to reach the last 16 at the U.S. Open.
Wimbledon quarter-finalist Muchova held serve for an early 3-2 lead in her first career meeting with Williams but the six-times champion cranked up the pace and won the next seven games to take over the match.
Williams took advantage of a poor serving performance by Muchova and broke her opponent five times, including in the final game where she sealed the victory with when the Czech sent a backhand long.
Up next for Williams will be Croatian 22nd seed Petra Martic, who beat Latvian Anastasija Sevastova earlier on Friday.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue, editing by Pritha Sarkar)