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MELBOURNE: Victoria Azarenka reached her first Australian Open semi-final since winning the title in 2013 when she knocked out third seed Jessica Pegula 6-4, 6-1 on Tuesday.

Victory marked the first time in a decade that the 33-year-old had made it to the last-four at Melbourne Park and she will make her first appearance in a major semi-final since the U.S. Open in 2020 where she went on to lose in the title clash.

The Belarusian 24th seed outlasted her American opponent in a marathon 64-minute first set before running away with the second to set up a last-four encounter against Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina at Melbourne Park.

Azarenka, the last woman to defend the Australian Open title after her 2013 triumph, played superbly to race into a 3-0 lead over American Pegula in the first set before the highest seed left in the women’s draw finally held serve.

Pegula found her rhythm playing closer to the baseline and controlling the rallies to break back, but Belarusian Azarenka found another gear to move ahead in the contest before both players failed to hold serve in the next.

Former world number one Azarenka took the decisive lead, however, and closed out the match to set up a semi-final meeting with Wimbledon winner Elena Rybakina after the Kazakh 22nd seed beat former Roland Garros champion Jelena Ostapenko.

“It’s so amazing to be in the semi-final of another Grand Slam,” Azarenka said. “I felt especially last year my tennis wasn’t bad but I wasn’t really mentally there to go out there.