MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Li Na has advanced to her third Australian Open final and will have to beat Dominika Cibulkova to win her first title at Melbourne Park.

Number four seeded Li won the first give games to set up a 6-2, 6-4 win over 19-year-old Canadian Eugenie Bouchard in the first semi-final yesterday before No. 20-seeded Cibulkova trounced 2012 Wimbledon finalist Agnieszka Radwanska 6-1, 6-2.

Li, the 2011 French Open champion, was the only major winner in the semis after the fourth-round upsets of Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova and defending champion Victoria Azarenka’s quarterfinal loss to Radwanska.

Cibulkova has been the biggest surprise of the tournament. The diminutive Slovakian has won all but one of her matches in straight sets — her win over Maria Sharapova went to three.

But even Cibulkova was stunned that her first win in a Grand Slam semifinal took only one hour and 10 minutes. After Radwanska held in the third game, Cibulkova won the next eight in a dominating roll.

“To tell you the truth yes because Aga she’s an unbelievable player, her defense in the game is unbelievable,” Cibulkova said. “It will be my first final I just want to enjoy it, like I have every match here.”

Touted as the shortest women in the top 50 at 1.61-metres (5-foot-3), Cibulkova has shocked her bigger rivals with the power in her ground strokes.

“It’s something inside of me, I was born with it,” she said. “It’s my gift — that’s how I play.”

The win was a significant upset only a day after Radwanska outplayed No 2-ranked Azarenka, who won the previous two Australian titles.

Cibulkova had lost her only previous semifinal at a major — at the 2009 French Open — and had lost four of her five previous tour-level matches against Radwanska, including a 6-0, 6-0 defeat in the Sydney final last year.

Li lost last year’s Australian Open final to Azarenka, after falling over and hitting her head twice on the court. She lost the 2011 decider to Kim Clijsters.

“I think is the third time, so pretty close to the trophy,” Li said. “Yeah, at least I try to not fall down this time, because last year in the final I think I played well but I only can say I was unlucky. At least I’ll try to enjoy and stay healthy.”

Li raced out to a 5-0 lead in 14 minutes against Bouchard while people were still entering Rod Laver Arena.

Bouchard was playing only her fourth Grand Slam tournament, was seeded 30th and became just the second Canadian to reach a major semifinal.

“I think maybe she will be best player in the world. But today (I’m) so lucky,” said Li, who jokingly apologised to the Genie Army. “Sorry about that. If you guys be happy, I will go home.”

Li considered quitting the tour after the French Open last year, when she was beaten in the second round and was struggling with the off-court pressure.

The usually diplomatic Roger Federer didn’t bother concealing his preference for semifinal winners at the Australian Open.

He wanted an all-Swiss final, the first ever in a Grand Slam. Eighth-ranked Stanislas Wawrinka held up his end of the bargain with a 6-3, 7-6 (1), 6-7 (3), 7-6 (4) win over Tomas Berdych to reach his first major final.

Now the pressure is on the 17-time major winner to complete the match up. The major obstacle in his path: a semifinal against Rafael Nadal.

Now it’s Iron Stan’s turn to sit back and watch two of the greatest players ever do battle today for the right to meet him in Sunday’s final.

“For sure I’m going to really, really enjoy,” Wawrinka said. “I’m going to watch the match tomorrow in front of my TV, maybe with some popcorn.

“I always try to watch when they play because you can always learn. You can always see the best tennis ever on the tour.”

The 33rd instalment of the Nadal-Federer rivalry — the 11th in Grand Slams — should be enthralling viewing. Wawrinka’s joked that he’d prefer a walkover most of all, but likes the idea of a Swiss decider.

Federer is into his 11th consecutive semi-final at Melbourne Park — he has won five and gone on to win four finals.

He said he was inspired by Wawrinka’s upset quarterfinal win over three-time defending champion Novak Djokovic. Federer watched it on TV and caught himself fist-pumping when Wawrinka won big points.

Left-hander Nadal has a commanding 22-10 lead in head-to-heads against Federer. His 8-2 lead in Grand Slams includes the 2009 Australian final and the semifinals here in 2012.

“We’ve had some epics,” Federer said. “I hope we can slug it out.”