Nadal and Tsonga cruise through to semi-finals

The No2 seed Rafael Nadal made the semi-finals of the Australian Open for the first time in his career after a comfortable straight-sets victory over Jarkko Nieminen. There he will face Andy Murray's first round conqueror Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who recorded a straight-sets win of his own against Russia's Mikhail Youzhny.

Nadal was pushed all the way in a competitive first set but after that his class told as he went on to win 7-5, 6-3, 6-1. Nieminen actually had two set points at 15-40 on Nadal's serve when 5-4 up in the opening set but two booming serves from the Spaniard ensured the opportunity was short-lived. Nadal then took the upper hand in the 11th game when he broke Nieminen before comfortably holding his serve.

Nadal broke the 24th seed early in the second set and followed that up with another to move into a commanding 4-1 lead. Nieminen broke back when Nadal sent a backhand into the net and then held his serve to claw his way back to 4-3.

But Nadal again stamped his superiority on proceedings to take the next two games and enjoy a commanding two sets to love lead. The Spaniard then broke Nieminen again in the second game of the third set when his opponent could only volley Nadal's low sliced return into the net and went on to take the set 6-1.

"He played great and has started the season very well," said Nadal, who had never previously gone beyond the quarter-finals in Australia. "I am very happy to be in the semi-final. It's a very important tournament for me to start the season well. I will be trying my best to continue on in the tournament and I'm playing very well here."

Tsonga, meanwhile, who has already knocked out eighth seed Richard Gasquet out of the tournament, triumphed 7-5, 6-0, 7-6 (8-6) over Youzhny to reach his first grand slam semi-final.

The first set had remained on serve until the latter stages before Tsonga's attacking instincts gave him the breakthrough in the 12th game. Having already staved off a break point in his previous service game, Youzhny again found himself in trouble when he dumped a straightforward smash into the net at 30-all.

Another poor overhead gave Tsonga a chance on break point and the Frenchman took full advantage with a backhand cross-court winner. The second set was a one-sided affair with Tsonga in complete command. Youzhny, clearly troubled by ankle problems - he removed heavy strapping from both joints at 2-0 down - had no answer as his opponent dominated.

The third set was much closer as Tsonga's level began to dip. It went to a tie-break which Tsonga won, after saving a set point when Youzhny put a volley long.