Julia Goerges continued her impressive run on clay when she brushed aside Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4 6-2 to claim a place in the last four of the Madrid Tennis Open.
The rangy, big-serving German climbed to 27th in the rankings following her win against world number one Caroline Wozniacki in the Stuttgart final last month.
She followed that up by knocking out the Dane in the third round in Madrid on her debut at the WTA premier event in the Spanish capital.
A break of the Pavlyuchenkova serve in the first set and two in the second were enough to see Goerges through to the semi-finals, where she will play Victoria Azarenka.
Goerges played Azarenka, who won back-to-back titles in Miami and Marbella at the end of March and beginning of April, in the last 16 in Stuttgart and lost the first set 6-4 before the world number five retired with a shoulder injury.
The 21-year-old Azarenka can climb one place to number four in the rankings if she reaches the final.
In the other quarter-finals, sixth seed Li Na of China plays unseeded American Bethanie Mattek-Sands and 16th-seeded Czech Petra Kvitova takes on Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia.
