Serena Williams marked another milestone last night, punching her semi-final ticket in Miami with her 700th career match win, a 7-6 (7/4), 1-6, 6-3 triumph over Sabine Lisicki.

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World No1 Williams, chasing a third straight title and her eighth overall on hardcourts of Miami, next faces either thirdseeded Simona Halep or fellow American Sloane Stephens for a place in the championship match.

Williams claimed her 16th straight victory at Miami to improve her record at the event to 71-7. She became the eighth player to win 700 WTA matches. Martina Navratilova owns the most match wins, with 1,442.

“I didn’t know I had 700, now I just want to keep going, doing the best that I can,” said the 33-yearold American, who was feted with a cake from tournament organisers after the victory. I’m just staying positive and winning as much as I can.”

Germany’s Lisicki had a set point chance in the first, but was unable to convert. She was broken to send the set to a tiebreaker won by Williams.

Williams looked to be on her way when she broke Lisicki in the first game of the second set. But the German responded, dominating the set before Williams – who claimed her 19th Grand Slam title at the Australian Open – regained her concentration and sealed the win in just over two hours.

“I know today wasn’t my best day,” Williams said. “I just told myself, I’m not serving the way I normally serve and hitting the way I normally would hit, so at this point all I can do is just fight and try to give 200 per cent instead of 100 per cent.

“Obviously I don’t want to lose, or at least I want to try to do the best I can. She had a lot of momentum going into the third set after winning the second. I wanted to just stay strong and basically really wanted to hold serve.”

Meanwhile, normally the calmest customer on court, Novak Djokovic admitted he lost his cool during his fourth round scare against Alexandr Dolgopolov.

Desperate Djokovic fought back from a set and a break down to defeat Dolgopolov 6-7 (3/7), 7-5, 6-0, salvaging hopes of defending his Miami Open title. World No1 Djokovic won 24 of the last 27 points to reach tonight’s quarter-final against Spanish sixth seed David Ferrer.

“I was really frustrated,” Djokovic said. “I was trying to calm myself down, because inside there was a big fire. You could see a little bit of that in the first set.

“Just try to get to the state of mind where I have a serene, controlled mind and emotions and where I’m able to just be in the present moment. That’s where I was focusing on.”

“It wasn’t my kind of a day,” Djokovic added. “Just on the warmup the entire day was one of those days where you don’t feel so great mentally.

“But I fought my way through. I was just trying to find a way to come back in the match. He was playing well. He has a very unorthodox game, tricky opponent, mixes up the pace, and can easily get you out of the rhythm.”