Second seed Kim Clijsters ended Martina Hingis's dream return to grand slam tennis with a 6-3 2-6 6-4 Australian Open quarter-final win that guarantees she will regain the world number one ranking.
Clijsters started strongly and eventually overpowered the former world number one, who was playing her first grand slam in four years after injury had forced a premature retirement.
The Belgian, returning to form after a run of ankle and wrist injuries over the past year, held serve to close out the match after 102 minutes on Rod Laver Arena. She will play third seed Amelie Mauresmo in the semi-finals.
"After the year I had last year, this is the cherry on the cake, it just tops it off," said Clijsters.
Clijsters has also been troubled by hip and back injuries which forced her out of the Sydney International two weeks ago and which threatened to derail her Melbourne campaign. But she started strongly against three-times Australian champion Hingis, who struggled to hold serve early in the face of Clijsters' powerful returns and ground strokes.
Clijsters closed out the first set with a booming service winner and then jumped further ahead by breaking the Swiss in the opening game of the second set.
Facing an ignominious straight-sets defeat, the wily Hingis - making a mockery of her ranking of 349 - battled back to level at 2-2 and then broke Clijsters twice more to claim the second set as the US Open champion began to tire and her ground strokes lost some of their sting.
Clijsters again jumped away to an early lead in the deciding set on a Hingis double fault only to be broken back for 3-3. This time she regained the initiative immediately and edged ahead in the next game 4-3 as Hingis pushed a backhand service return wide on break point.
Another double fault got Hingis in trouble in the ninth game but she bravely battled back again to save two match points from 15-40 and hold serve for 4-5. But Clijsters proved too strong, racing through her final service game to love before covering her face in relief.
Clijsters, beaten for the title by compatriot Justine Henin-Hardenne in the 2004 final, will return to the number one spot after eighth seed Henin-Hardenne toppled incumbent Lindsay Davenport in the quarters.