A stint playing amateur football back in his home town has reignited Alex Bolt's love for tennis, with the top seed edging closer to an Australian Open wildcard berth.
While his semi-final rivals sweltered in the Melbourne Park heat, Bolt made short work of junior champion Alexander Crnokrak in their quarter-final meeting.
Bolt swept aside the 17-year-old 6-1 6-3 6-3 in blustery 35-degree conditions while his final-four opponent Marc Polmans ground out a 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 4-6 6-2 win over third seed Andrew Whittington.
Second seed Alex de Minaur had a straight-sets win over Matt Barton.
Fifth seed Omar Jasika battled through in five sets over Chris O'Connell, winning 7-6 (7-2) 3-6 6-1 4-6 6-4.
He will next play de Minaur on Friday.
Bolt, 24, said he hoped to avoid a long match after been taken to five in his opening clash with another youngster Benard Nkomba.
Crnokrak beat Nkomba last week to win the national under-18 title.
"My goal was to get off to a good start so I didn't have to hang around in the heat like I did on Monday," said Bolt, who made the 2017 Open main draw through qualifying.
Despite the physical toll of his earlier win, the world No.190 said it had helped him find his groove in his return to competition after a month's break.
"The three-and-a-half hours that I was on court has really put me in a good spot and I'm starting to see the ball a lot bigger and it certainly showed today," Bolt said.
From Murray Bridge outside Adelaide, Bolt took a hiatus from tennis in 2016 after losing his love for the game.
"I lost the motivation and passion to play and I thought, without that, there's not really much point so I went home for nine months," he said.
"Most people don't realise what goes on behind the scenes. It's not just travelling to nice places - there's a lot of strain on yourself.
"When I went back, my mates convinced me to play footy for the first time so I gave it a go but, a couple of months in, I started to see the Aussie boys doing well and started to miss it more and more and had to come back."
