Stan Wawrinka has taken a giant step towards defending his Australian Open crown with a straights-sets quarter-final defeat of Kei Nishikori.
Wawrinka was at his swashbuckling best in a 6-3 6-4 7-6 (8-6) elimination of Japan's world No.5, reaching the last four in two hours and four minutes on Wednesday.
The Swiss fourth seed's reward is a Friday night clash with either world No.1 Novak Djokovic or Canadian eighth seed Milos Raonic for a place in Sunday's final.
Wawrinka's serve was a particular strength, upping his speed from previous rounds and winning 86 per cent of first-serve points and clinching the match with his 20th ace.
The score would have been even more emphatic if Wawrinka had taken more of his opportunities to break - converting just three of 11 chances.
By contrast, Nishikori failed to earn a single break point until the final game of the second set.
The reigning champion worked Nishikori around at will with glorious stroke-making that found the corner of the court from seemingly any position.
Nishikori, who missed the chance to become the first Japanese man into the last four at the Australian Open in 83 years, was expected to be Wawrinka's first major challenge after he'd reached the quarter-finals for the loss of just one set.
The US Open runner-up did show some fighting qualities, saving three set points in the opening set and then five match points in the third-set tiebreaker.
But the usually dynamic Nishikori had simply met his match in Wawrinka, who saved his best for the biggest moments.
The win earned Wawrinka a measure of revenge for his five-set loss to Nishikori in last year's US Open quarter-finals and preserved his 2015 unbeaten streak, after he won the Chennai lead-up event.
It's also the first time Wawrinka has made the semi-finals twice at any grand slam event.
He needed six match points to see off Nishikori, after blowing a 6-1 lead in the breaker, and admitted the jitters stemmed from a similarly nervy fourth-round tiebreak against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.
"I'm still nervous at the end of the tiebreak," Wawrinka said.
"(Against Garcia-Lopez) I started a tiebreak 0-5, today 6-1.
"It's never easy to win well."
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