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MELBOURNE, Australia -- Maria Sharapova probably looked across the net and saw some of herself in quarterfinal opponent Anna Chakvetadze -- a blond Russian rising fast up the rankings.
Ditto No.4 seed Kim Clijsters, who plans to hang up her rackets at the end of the season and faced formerly retired Martina Hingis.
Both delayed the future today (Tuesday night ET) in the Australian Open with hard-fought victories to set up a high-powered semifinal clash between the two highest seeds remaining.
The other semifinal features unseeded Serena Williams against 17-year-old Nicole Vaidisova, the No.10 seed from the Czech Republic.
Shaking off a patchy performance, top-seeded Sharapova moved into her third consecutive semifinal by beating Chakvetadze 7-6 (7-5), 7-5. Both players are 19; Sharapova is one month older than Chakvetadze.
"I was a bit up and down today, a little scratchy," said Sharapova, much more accustomed to big-time matches than her opponent. "I definitely want to go a step further than I've gone here."
Both players took injury timeouts, Chakvetadze for her right shoulder after the first set and Sharapova for blisters on her foot midway through the second. Sharapova also received a warning from the umpire for illegal on-court coaching.
Despite Sharapova's 41 errors vs. 32 winners and six double faults -- including two on break point in the first set and another serving for the match at 5-3 -- Chakvetadze could not capitalize.
Belgium's Clijsters rallied past sixth-seeded Hingis 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the day's second match, despite 62 unforced errors.
*Roddick takes aim at Federer, 8C
*Vaidisova up next for Williams, 8C
*Tournament results, 13C
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