By Michael Church
MELBOURNE, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Fifth seed Elena Rybakina booked her place in the Australian Open semi-finals on Wednesday with a dominant second set display to hand six-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek a 7-5 6-1 defeat at Melbourne Park.
Looking to lift the trophy for the first time, the 28-year-old will take on either Jessica Pegula or Amanda Anisimov for a place in Saturday's final.
"Really pleased with the win," said Rybakina. "We know each other pretty well and I was just trying
to stay aggressive.
"I feel like in the first set for both of us the first serve wasn't working so we were trying to step in on the second serve to put pressure on each other.
"I think in the second I just started to play more free, serve better and I'm really happy with the win."
Swiatek had made a quick start, breaking Rybakina in the opening game as she punished the Kazakh's second serve but the number two seed failed to consolidate, immediately surrendering her advantage.
Both players held serve until the final game, when Swiatek fired into the net to give Rybakina the opening set after almost an hour's play.
Rybakina then made the most of Swiatek's frustrations with her service, taking the second game of the second set by crashing a forehand into the corner with the Pole rooted to the spot.
Swiatek was left questioning a marginal line call as Rybakina broke her serve again late in the set before comfortably holding to advance.
(Reporting by Michael Church; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Christopher Cushing)
