Top seed Simona Halep recovered from a slow start before racing away to a 6-3 6-2 victory, over Czech sixth seed Karolina Pliskova in their Australian Open quarter-final on Wednesday.
The 26-year-old Romanian world number one, still without a grand slam title, trailed 3-0, but battened down the hatches to reel off the next nine games on her way to a first Melbourne semi-final.
An increasingly deflated Pliskova eventually stopped the rot, but with Halep offering precious little in the way of cheap points, the result soon became a formality.
Halep made only 10 unforced errors in the one hour, 11 minute contest on Rod Laver Arena and sealed victory with a punishing return to the baseline, which the big-serving Pliskova could only slap into the net.
The Romanian advances to face 2016 champion Angelique Kerber in the semi-finals after the German crushed American Madison Keys earlier on Wednesday.
“It’s nice to be in the semis,” Halep, coached by Australian Darren Cahill, said on court.
He added: “I started to open the court and get a read on her serve.”
