The Belarusian muscled past the emerging superstar 6-3, 6-0 to accelerate her bid for a third Melbourne title. Sabalenka will face either the third seed Coco Gauff, another American or 12th seed Elina Svitolina.

Sabalenka, who won the Australian Open in 2023 and 2024 before losing last year's crown to the USA's Madison Keys, has entered her 14th career Slam semis and fourth in a row at the first major of the year.

 

Meanwhile, Keys' title defence is over after she was beaten in the fourth round by Jessica Pegula.

"These teenagers have been testing me in the last couple of rounds," said Sabalenka. "It was a tough match. Don't look at the score; it wasn't easy at all. She played incredible tennis. Pushed me to one step better level. And I'm super happy with the win."

The match was played under an open roof on Rod Laver Arena, with the tournament Heat Stress Scale yet to reach the level where it could be closed. Temperatures are forecast to hit a blistering 45 °C, with a peak of 38 °C reached during the match.

However, the defeat brought an end to a breakthrough tournament for 18-year-old Jovic, the youngest player in the women's top 100 and seeded 29. Earlier, she stunned seventh seed and two-time Slam finalist Jasmine Paolini and blitzed past experienced Yulia Putintseva for the loss of just one game to announce herself to the world.

But Sabalenka was a bridge too far.

Sabalenka, too good for American teen

The world number one safely held serve to lay down a marker, blasting an ace to set up game point and an unreturnable serve to win it.

Jovic made some early errors and sent the ball long on a break point to surrender her serve and fall 2-0 behind.

Sabalenka held to pile on the pressure before Jovic fended off a break point on her next serve to get on the scoreboard. But despite some long rallies as she got into the match and three break points as Sabalenka served for the set, the top seed's brute force proved too much.

Sabalenka then broke her immediately to assert control of set two, and Jovic was spent, with another break for 3-0, then a double fault to slump 5-0 down, signalling the end.