Defending champion Venus Williams closed in on a sixth Wimbledon title on Tuesday with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska whose quarterfinal challenge melted in the searing heat.
World number one Dinara Safina reached semifinals for the first time with a 6-7 (5/7), 6-4, 6-1 win over unseeded German teenager Sabine Lisicki.
Despite losing the first set by double-faulting on a tie-break, the top-seeded Russian recovered to beat the world number 41 in two hours, 28 minutes on Centre Court.
Safina faces defending champion Venus Williams, the third seed, for a place in the final.
Fourth seed Elena Dementieva also eased into the last four for the second successive year after crushing unseeded Italian Francesca Schiavone 6-2, 6-2.
Dementieva made it at the All England Club for the first time last year before losing to eventual champion Venus Williams.
The Russian will hope to go one step further this time when she faces either Serena Williams, the second seed and two-time champion, or eighth seed Victoria Azarenka in the last four.
Since losing the finals of the French and US Opens in 2004, Dementieva has been unable to make it to the title match of a Grand Slam.
Venus, bidding to become the first woman to win a hattrick of Wimbledon titles since Steffi Graf's three-in-a-row from 1991 to 1993, next faces either top seed Dinara Safina or Germany's Sabine Lisicki for a place in the final.
The 29-year-old American, seeded three, has now won 32 consecutive sets at the All England Club since Japan's Akiko Morigami took the second set of their third round match in 2007.
She breezed through the first set in 27 minutes, serving up two love games on her way to a 5-0 lead before the 11th seeded Radwanska got on the board.
The Polish girl broke to love to lead 2-0 in the second set but that was as good as it got for the slender 20-year-old who had no answer to the American's brutal hitting power.
Venus ran away with the next six games to claim victory after 68 minutes.
"I really had to play well. It was close at the start of the second set. She's a good grasscourt player so I'm happy just to get through," said the American who has now reached her eighth semi-final in 10 years.
"If it was an all-Williams final that would be fantastic but we still have great players to meet and will have to bring our best tennis to the court."
Later Tuesday, two-time champion Serena Williams, the second seed, takes on Belarusian eighth seed Victoria Azarenka who is aiming to reach her first Grand Slam semi-final.
The last quarter-final features London-based Italian Francesca Schiavone, bidding to reach her first semi-final in a major, against Russian fourth seed Elena Dementieva who made the last four here last year.
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