MELBOURNE, Jan 22: Monica Seles shocked an injury-hampered Venus Williams for the first time in her career on Tuesday to send the second seed limping out of the Australian Open 6-7 6-2 6-3.

The stunning victory, her first in seven matches against the U.S. Open and Wimbledon champion, put eighth seed Seles through to a Melbourne semifinal with third seed Martina Hingis. Williams had last lost a singles match in July.

Three-times champion Hingis was the first player to stride into the semifinals earlier on Tuesday when she clinically swept aside unseeded Italian Adriana Serra Zanetti 6-2 6-3.

The Swiss, without a grand slam title since her third consecutive Open crown in 1999, underlined her determination to rejoin the pantheon of major title holders with a sharp and gritty performance.

But Seles provided the performance of the day, ignoring a slight fever and cold to power her way past Williams.

Williams had suffered tendinitis in her left knee earlier in the tournament and pulled a muscle in her right leg in the first set of this quarter-final.

She received treatment, had more strapping on her upper leg and continued, but at times her movement seemed hampered.

Williams was forced to use high-risk all-or-nothing tactics which backfired as Seles squared the match then secured victory with big hitting of her own.

Seles’s victory over Williams was the first by a top 10 player in 16 matches. The last elite player to beat Williams had been Hingis in the Melbourne semifinals last year.

Hingis’s victory was a one-sided affair. The Swiss outclassed Serra Zanetti and finished off their quarter-final under the closed Rod Laver Arena court in just 73 minutes as rain fell.

Hingis will be vying for her sixth straight finals appearance in Melbourne after losing to Jennifer Capriati last year and Lindsay Davenport in 2000. She said she felt even better than she did at the same stage last year.

The men’s draw is guaranteed a new champion after the last remaining former winner, Pete Sampras, was ousted by Marat Safin on Monday.

Sixteenth seed Thomas Johansson beat fellow Swede Jonas Bjorkman 6-0 2-6 6-3 6-4 to reach the last four on Tuesday.

He will face 26th-seed Jiri Novak after the Czech strolled past Austria’s Stefan Koubek 6-2 6-3 6-2 in only 85 minutes.

The men’s draw was blown wide open when the top five seeds all failed to make it past the first three days and many more fell in the first week.

RESULTS