Zheng Jie has become the first Chinese player to reach the semifinals at the Australian Open tennis tournament after she powered past Maria Kirilenko of Russia in two straight sets on Tuesday.

Zheng upset Kirilenko 6-1, 6-3, for her best-ever performance at the Grand Slam event in Melbourne, eclipsing her fourth round appearance in 2009.

The 26-year-old Chinese also has become the only unseeded entrant to reach the semifinals in the Australian Open.

Another Chinese player Li Na will play sixth seed Venus Williams for a place in the semifinals after beating No. 4 seed Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark on Monday.

Zheng, who won four of her previous five matches against Kirilenko, was in good form for Tuesday's quarter-final at the Rod Laver Arena.

She broke the Russian twice to wrap up an excellent first set 6-1 in only 34 minutes.

The second set seemed to be harder for Zheng.

The Chinese started with a break and led 2-0. But Russian Kirilenko steeled herself to hold serve with some more aggressive hitting and made it 4-3.

Zheng, successfully holding her fourth serve, never let the Russian go further by beating her 6-3 when Kirilenko double-faulted on match point.

Kirilienko had to take an injury time out between sets and also received treatment several times during the second.

Zheng Jie, the 2008 Wimbledon semifinalist, has knocked out seeded players en route to the quarters, defeating Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, the 24th seed and 11th seed Marion Bartoli of France, and eliminated No. 31 seed Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine in round four.

The Sichuan native, playing in the Australian Open women's singles for the sixth time, is now just two wins away from completing a dream run.

She will play former world number one Justine Henin of Belgium in the semifinal. Henin beat Russian No. 19 seed Nadia Petrova 7-6 (7-3) 7-5 in their quarterfinal on Tuesday.

(Xinhua News Agency January 26, 2010)