The world number two, making her fifth successive appearance in Moscow [Images], broke Dushevina twice in the first set and twice more in the second before putting away her 46th-ranked opponent with an overhead smash after 71 minutes.

"It was a pretty comfortable win for me," said Kuznetsova, 22, who has not dropped a set in her four meetings against the 21-year-old Dushevina.

"I broke her early in the first set to set the tone for the rest of the match and could just cruise along. In the second set I was even able to experiment with my game a little bit, like rushing to the net more often. It was a good preparation for Saturday."

The Russian will now take on former world number one Serena Williams [Images] who overcame eighth-seeded Czech Nicole Vaidisova 6-4 7-6 after a hard-fought battle lasting nearly two hours.

The fourth-seeded American, making her second appearance in Moscow, 10 years after her debut as a 16-year-old, took the opening set after breaking Vaidisova in the seventh game.

The Czech edged ahead 5-3 in the second, but the Australian Open champion, playing with her right thigh heavily strapped, broke right back to level the score and force a tiebreak.

She finally ended the contest on her fourth match point when Vaidisova put a tame forehand into the net.

NO PRESSURE

Looking ahead to her semi-final clash, world number seven Williams said of Kuznetsova: "She is doing so well, she is now number two in the world and number one in Russia [Images]. Trust me, it means a lot with so many talented Russians out there.

"I'll go into the match with nothing to lose because she's ranked higher than me. I had that same attitude at the Australian Open and it worked great for me, it got me the title, my eighth grand slam."

The American leads their head-to-head duel with Kuznetsova 2-1, but the Russian won their last match, in the quarter-finals of the Stuttgart Grand Prix last week.

The second semi-final will be an all-Russian affair between two unseeded players, Elena Dementieva and Dinara Safina.

Dementieva, who reached the final here in 2001 and in 2004, beat talented Belarussian teenager Victoria Azarenka, who stunned second seed Maria Sharapova [Images] in the second round, 7-6 6-2.

Safina, the younger sister of former world number one Marat Safin [Images] and who knocked out third seed and last year's winner Anna Chakvetadze [Images] in round two, continued her good run of form to see off compatriot Vera Zvonareva 6-2 3-6 6-3.

In the men's draw, top seed and defending champion Nikolay Davydenko will play unseeded Serb Janko Tipsarevic in the semi-finals after disposing of his Russian Davis Cup team mate and 2005 winner Igor Andreev 7-5 7-5.

Tipsarevic was the first player to reach the last four after prevailing over Czech Radek Stepanek 6-4 3-6 6-3.

He was soon joined in the last four by fourth-seeded Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu, who advanced at the expense of countryman Florent Serra 6-3 6-3.

The 25-year-old Mathieu, who won his first career title here in 2002, will face unseeded German Michael Berrer, who reached his first career semi-final on the ATP Tour at age 27 after his eighth-seeded compatriot Philipp Kohlschreiber retired with a back injury after losing the first set 6-3.

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