England's Heather Watson has booked a Hobart International semi-final showdown with defending champion Elise Mertens after a straight-sets win that hit a slight blip.
Watson took 61 minutes to get past Croatian Donna Vekic 6-0 6-4 on Thursday but had to withstand a late surge.
World No.74 Watson claimed the first 11 games of the match against the higher-ranked Vekic and took a 5-0 lead in the second set.
She looked on track for an untroubled win until Vekic fired up her forehand and reeled off four straight games.
"I was pretty flawless, no mistakes and then at 5-0 Donna raised her level," Watson said.
"I knew she'd change something and swing freely because you've got nothing to lose at that point.
"I just had to stick with her."
Watson steadied though, as Vekic double faulted and then pushed a groundstroke long on the final two points of the match.
Watson, who won Hobart in 2015, was forced to qualify for this year's event but has made an impressive run to the final four, knocking out third seed Sorana Cirstea in the opening round.
She'll meet defending champion Elise Mertens in Friday's semi-finals.
Second seed Mertens advanced via a walkover after last year's runner-up Monica Niculescu withdrew due to a shoulder injury.
No player has won the Hobart title twice since it began in 1994 but Mertens or Watson could become the first.
In the third quarter-final, fifth seed Lesia Tsurenko abruptly ended big-hitting Romanian teenager Aryna Sabalenka's tournament 6-1 6-1.
Sabalenka had ousted top seed Shuai Zhang and former world No.5 Eugenie Bouchard en route to the quarter-finals.
"I just was playing relaxed ... I was quite confident that I could win the match and was really comfortable out there," Tsurenko, who reached a career-high No.29 in July, said.
She'll play Romania's Mihaela Buzarnescu who beat American Alison Riske 7-6 (7-5) 6-1.
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