Melbourne: Belgian eighth seed Justine Henin-Hardenne knocked top seed Lindsay Davenport out of the Australian Open to reach the semi-finals with a come-from-behind 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 win on Tuesday.
Henin-Hardenne will meet Russian fourth seed Maria Sharapova on Thursday in the semis of the tournament she won in 2004.
Her win means Davenport will lose her world No 1 ranking when revised placings are released on next Monday and also means Henin-Hardenne has now dumped 2000 Australian champion Davenport out of the season-opening Grand Slam three times.
It also extends the world No 6 unbeaten run in Australia to 19 matches, including the Australian Open and Sydney International warm-up tournaments in 2004.
She she did not tour Down Under last year because of injury.
The quarter-final clash pitted the top seed against the bookies' favourite to win the tournament, with punters backing Henin-Hardenne after her convincing comeback from a four-month injury layoff.
Davenport struggled against some of her early opponents in Melbourne with an ankle injury and she appeared to be suffering again on Tuesday, not daring to run from the baseline to pick up Henin's drop shots.
Neither player started the match well, with all but two of the first set games going against serve.
The American was the first to hit her stride, holding serve in the fourth then breaking Henin-Hardenne in the next to shoot to a 4-1 lead.
Henin-Hardenne, who had not dropped a set in the early stages of the tournament, then rediscovered her fighting qualities against an opponent she has dominated in recent years to break back.
Maria Sharapova waltzed into her second straight semi-final at the Open but was made to sweat in the first set by Petrova.
"It was very difficult, I've played Nadia in the last two Grand Slams in the quarter-finals as well and we've had such tough matches and I've been able to pull through so I'm very happy," Sharapova said.
The 2004 Wimbledon champion has never gone beyond the semis at the Open and knows she needs to lift her game to another level if she is to get there.
"I'll have to step it up that's for sure but I'm confident I can," she said.
"I'm moving a lot better. I feel like the biggest weapon of mine is just my toughness and I know that over any girl, until the end, I'm going to be a tough opponent."
The Russian No 1 is becoming a Grand Slam bogeyman for Petrova, beating her at the same stage in the last two majors -- the US Open and Wimbledon last year.
Nalbandian ground out an easy win against Santoro, who troubled him in the first set with some unorthodox play before collapsing in the second and third with the match ending after just 1hr 41min, shorter than the women's match.
The Argentine will play either Croatian seventh seed Ivan Ljubicic or unseeded Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus in Thursday's semi-final, and is confident of going all the way.
"I'm in the semis now so I'm very happy. I will try to be in the final and try to play all the four Grand Slam finals," Nalbandian said.
"My goal is to win some Grand Slams. I'm ready to do it."
Nalbandian has now reached the semi-finals of all four Grand Slam events -- French Open (2004), Wimbledon (2002) and US Open (2003) and the Australian, and is bidding to become only the second Argentinian to win the Australian Open.
Guillermo Vilas was the first in 1978 and 1979.
The final four quarter-finals take place on Wednesday.
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