The world number two, making her fifth successive appearance in Moscow [ Images ], broke Dushevina twice in the first set and twice more in the second before putting away her 46th-ranked opponent with an overhead smash after 71 minutes.

"It was a pretty comfortable win for me," said Kuznetsova, 22, who has not dropped a set in her four meetings against the 21-year-old Dushevina.

"I broke her early in the first set to set the tone for the rest of the match and could just cruise along. In the second set I was even able to experiment with my game a little bit, like rushing to the net more often. It was a good preparation for Saturday."

The Russian will now take on former world number one Serena Williams [ Images ] who overcame eighth-seeded Czech Nicole Vaidisova [ Images ] 6-4 7-6 after a hard-fought battle lasting nearly two hours.

The fourth-seeded American, making her second appearance in Moscow, 10 years after her debut as a 16-year-old, took the opening set after breaking Vaidisova in the seventh game.

The Czech edged ahead 5-3 in the second, but the Australian Open [ Images ] champion, playing with her right thigh heavily strapped, broke right back to level the score and force a tiebreak.

She finally ended the contest on her fourth match point when Vaidisova put a tame forehand into the net.

NO PRESSURE

Looking ahead to her semi-final clash, world number seven Williams said of Kuznetsova: "She is doing so well, she is now number two in the world and number one in Russia [ Images ]. Trust me, it means a lot with so many talented Russians out there.

"I'll go into the match with nothing to lose because she's ranked higher than me. I had that same attitude at the Australian Open and it worked great for me, it got me the title, my eighth grand slam."

The American leads their head-to-head duel with Kuznetsova 2-1, but the Russian won their last match, in the quarter-finals of the Stuttgart Grand Prix [ Images ] last week.

The second semi-final will be an all-Russian affair between two unseeded players, Elena Dementieva [ Images ] and Dinara Safina [ Images ].

Dementieva, who reached the final here in 2001 and in 2004, beat talented Belarussian teenager Victoria Azarenka [ Images ], who stunned second seed Maria Sharapova [ Images ] in the second round, 7-6 6-2.

Safina, the younger sister of former world number one Marat Safin [ Images ] and who knocked out third seed and last year's winner Anna Chakvetadze [ Images ] in round two, continued her good run of form to see off compatriot Vera Zvonareva [ Images ] 6-2 3-6 6-3.

In the men's draw, top seed and defending champion Nikolay Davydenko [ Images ] will play unseeded Serb Janko Tipsarevic [ Images ] in the semi-finals after disposing of his Russian Davis Cup team mate and 2005 winner Igor Andreev 7-5 7-5.

Tipsarevic was the first player to reach the last four after prevailing over Czech Radek Stepanek 6-4 3-6 6-3.

He was soon joined in the last four by fourth-seeded Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu, who advanced at the expense of countryman Florent Serra 6-3 6-3.

The 25-year-old Mathieu, who won his first career title here in 2002, will face unseeded German Michael Berrer, who reached his first career semi-final on the ATP Tour at age 27 after his eighth-seeded compatriot Philipp Kohlschreiber retired with a back injury after losing the first set 6-3.