Venus Williams eases into semi-finals of Bangkok tennis tournament

Six-time Grand Slam winner Venus Williams cruised into the Bangkok Open semi-finals on Friday with a straight-sets victory over France 's Camille Pin .

Williams, making her sixth straight quarter-final appearance, defeated the Frenchwoman 6-1, 6-1 in little more than an hour.

She will square off with the tournament's seventh-seed Flavia Pennetta of Italy , who came back from a set down to oust third-seeded Israeli Shahar Peer 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.

Williams, the world number eight, has previously made short work of her upcoming semi-final opponent Pennetta, beating her 6-2, 6-2 in their only meeting two weeks ago at the Korea Open in Seoul .

"What can I say about her, she's a great player, a champion," Pennetta said.

"It's going to be a tough match," she added.

The Italian will have her hands full with the reigning Wimbledon champion , who has yet to surrender a set in Thailand .

In other action, defending Bangkok Open champion Vania King of the United States survived a marathon second round match to upset fifth-seed Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 6-7 (8/10), 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (7/4).

The clash spanned two days after rain suspended play Thursday.

King will face surprise package Yan Zi late Friday, after the Chinese knocked out world number three Jelena Jankovic of Serbia in the first round and Russian Olga Poutchkova in the second.

Poland 's Urszula Radwanska was playing Chan Yung-Jan of Taiwan in the other quarter-final.