Clijsters marches into semis

MELBOURNE, Australia - Kim Clijsters moved into an Australian Open semifinal showdown with second-ranked Vera Zvonareva, beating Agnieszka Radwanska 6-3, 7-6 (4) on Wednesday as air force planes flew overhead as part of celebrations for the national holiday.

Cannons went off earlier when Zvonareva started the Australia Day proceedings at Rod Laver Arena with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Petra Kvitova.

Thursday's semifinal will be a rematch of the last U.S. Open final, where Clijsters collected her third Grand Slam title.

Clijsters is the only Grand Slam winner into the women's semis, although she's still seeking her first major title outside of America. No. 1-ranked Caroline Wozniacki and China's Li Na meet in the other half of the draw.

"I hope the experience can help me a little bit," Clijsters said. "But there are some tough players out there, we have Nos. 1, 2, 3 still in and Li Na has been playing really well. So it is going to be really tough.

"I lost to Vera at Wimbledon last year, I beat her in finals of U.S. Open."

Clijsters has a 6-3 lead in head-to-heads against Zvonareva, while Li has won two of her three matches against Wozniacki.

Zvonareva has lost the last two Grand Slam finals, to Clijsters in New York and Serena Williams at Wimbledon.

Clijsters was up a set and a break before Radwanska rallied, winning three straight games to lead 5-4 with a chance to serve for the second set.

On Tuesday, Roger Federer moved onto the Australian Open semifinals for the eighth time. He didn't want to talk about anything beyond his next match, against Novak Djokovic.

Federer routed Stanislas Wawrinka 6-1, 6-3, 6-3 in the first all-Swiss quarterfinal at a major. Djokovic eliminated Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych 6-1, 7-6 (5), 6-1.

Federer and Rafael Nadal have dominated the Grand Slam tournaments, winning 21 of the last 23 titles. But Djokovic is dangerous.

It was at this stage of the 2008 Australian Open that Djokovic beat Federer before going on to win his first and only Grand Slam singles title. Federer also lost to Djokovic after having two match points in the U.S. Open semifinals last September.

A mental lapse at Flushing Meadows cost Federer.

"I was playing good enough to win," Federer said. "But I was a bit confused mentally, maybe, because we played the second session. ... Maybe I just felt like I have to get out of this match as quick as I could to save energy to play Rafa the next day. I think it ended up hurting me losing the match at the end."

It ended a sequence for Federer of six straight finals appearances in New York.

And then Djokovic lost to Nadal in the final, giving the Spaniard his first U.S. Open title. That set him on the path toward his Rafa Slam - Nadal is aiming to be the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to hold all four major titles at once.

Nadal played the late quarterfinal Wednesday against David Ferrer. A win would set up a semifinal against Andy Murray, the only man to beat Nadal in a major in 2010. Murray defeated Alexandr Dolgopolov 7-5, 6-3, 6-7, 6-3.