Chile's Fernando Gonzalez plays a backhand during his quarter-final against Spain's Rafael Nadal at the Australian Open yesterday. Gonzalez won 6-2, 6-4, 6-3. - Reuters

MELBOURNE, (AP):

FERNANDO GONZALEZ rode his big serve and even bigger forehand to knock second-ranked Rafael Nadal out of the Australian Open and advance to his first Grand Slam semi-final yesterday.

Shedding the inconsistencies that hampered him in the past, Gonzalez was simply dominating in a 6-2, 6-4, 6-3 victory that took just over two hours. The Chilean broke Nadal five times, and his 41 winners were almost triple Nadal's 14. His 10 aces gave him 76 in five matches for the tournament lead; Andy Roddick is second with 71.

The 10th-seeded Gonzalez said he may have never played better.

"Tonight I played really unbelievable tennis. I hope to continue this week. I am trying to slice more, trying to run more. I used to just hit, hit, hit, and maybe I win the point."

Pain in buttock and leg

Nadal said he was hampered by pain in his left leg and buttock that cropped up after his last match, a five-setter against Andy Murray.

"I can't run a lot," he said, adding that he hopes to play Davis Cup in a week but will go to a doctor first. "It was difficultto play one match like this, quarter-finals of one Grand Slam, with pain."

Gonzalez next plays Germany's Tommy Haas. The 12th-seeded Haas saved a match point before upsetting No. 3 Nikolay Davydenko 6-3, 2-6, 1-6, 6-1, 7-5.

Fourth-seeded Kim Clijsters, starting her farewell tour, earlier beat friend Martina Hingis 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 to advance to the women's semi-finals. She will face top-seeded Maria Sharapova, who advanced to the semi-finals for the third straight year with a 7-6 (5), 7-5 win over Anna Chakvetadze, a fellow 19-year-old Russian.

Sharapova double-faulted on break point three times, but she had the only point on serve in the tiebreaker.

"It was very difficult, I didn't feel like we had a lot of easy rallies," Sharapova said. "I felt I had to work on every point."

Twenty of Gonzalez's winners came off his stinging forehand, one of the best in the game, which kept Nadal off-balance and unable to get into the long rallies that he relishes.

"I think that my forehand was the key of the match," Gonzalez said. "I've been playing really good, feeling the ball, defending, serving really well and, of course, hitting my forehand all around the court."

Gonzalez broke Nadal twice in the first set and again in the opening game of the second when the Spaniard crashed a forehand into the net on double breakpoint.