Second seed Kim Clijsters [Images] ended Martina Hingis's [Images] fairytale run at the Australian Open on Wednesday to reach a semi-final against Amelie Mauresmo and regain the world number one ranking.

Belgian Clijsters beat Hingis 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 as time finally ran out for the former three-times Australian Open champion from Switzerland [Images] in her comeback to Grand Slam tennis.

Clijsters will play third seed Mauresmo in Thursday's semi-finals after the muscular Frenchwoman thrashed Swiss seventh seed Patty Schnyder 6-3, 6-0.

The other semi-final will be between Russian fourth seed Maria Sharapova [Images] and Belgium's Justine Henin-Hardenne, who defeated top seed Lindsay Davenport [Images] on Tuesday to allow Clijsters to regain the number one ranking.

"After the year I had last year, this is the cherry on the cake, it just tops it off," Clijsters said in a courtside interview, referring to an injury-marred 2005.

U.S. Open champion Clijsters started strongly and eventually overpowered Swiss Hingis, who struggled to hold serve early but won the second set and saved two match points in the third before conceding defeat.

"This is the first time I've played her for a while and she played great," Clijsters said.

ILL-TEMPERED MATCH

German Nicolas Kiefer earlier beat Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean 6-3, 0-6, 6-4, 6-7, 8-6 in an ill-tempered men's quarter-final to reach the final four in a grand slam for the first time in 35 attempts.

The match lasted four hours and 48 minutes, making it the longest at this year's tournament and one of the longest in the championship's history, but was marred by an angry exchange in the final set.

Kiefer had already been handed a code violation for swearing in the fourth set but tensions threatened to boil over when he threw his racket as Grosjean was attempting an easy volley in the 12th game of the last set.

The Frenchman missed the shot and the point was awarded to Kiefer. Grosjean protested bitterly to chair umpire Carlos Bernardes and match referee Mike Morrissey but the point stood.

Grosjean won that game but dropped serve shortly after to lose the match and was still fuming when he arrived at his news conference.

"It doesn't matter if he's expecting to lose the point or win the point. You can't throw the racket," Grosjean said.

Kiefer admitted he threw the racket and Grosjean should have been given the point but defended his actions.

"I thought it's his point. I was surprised that I got this point, but I took it," Kiefer said.

"Of course, it's not nice, but what can I do? I'm a person with so much tension also inside."

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