Agassi, Capriati, Rafter in semis

Defending champion Andre Agassi raced past fellow American Todd Martin 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 on Tuesday to be the first man through to the semi-finals of the Australian Open.

The sixth seed sealed the quarter-final victory on his second match-point, when he ended a stirring rally with a running backhand lob.

It was his 13th win in 18 matches with Martin, who upset third seed and former world number one Pete Sampras in the fourth round.

Agassi always had Martin struggling with his fearsome return of serve and big groundstrokes, making Martin work hard for any points.

Martin did manage to break Agassi for a 4-3 lead in the final set but immediately surrendered the advantage and Agassi quickly sped to victory.

He will play 12th-seeded Australian Pat Rafter, who beat 14th seed Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia 6-2, 6-7 (4/7), 7-5, 6-0 in the semi-finals.

Roared on by a capacity 15,000 crowd at the Rod Laver arena, Rafter produced an extraordinary rally to overcome Slovakia's Dominik Hrbaty in four sets.

From 4-1 down in the third set, and with Hrbaty apparently in control of proceedings, Rafter won 12 of the last 13 games to score an unlikely victory.

It was a remarkable achievement for Rafter, who may be playing in his last Australian Open after announcing he intends to take an indefinite break from tennis at the end of the year.

The 28-year-old has now reached the last four of all four Grand Slam tournaments but had never before gone beyond the fourth round at Melbourne Park. He was the first Australian to reach the last four since Mark Woodforde in 1996.

"It's been a long time," he said. "It feels very, very satisfying to be at home and doing it

Jennifer Capriati stormed back from a set down to stun fourth seed Monica Seles 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 on Tuesday to also march into the women's semi-finals for the second straight year.

Twelfth seed Capriati outgunned the four-times Open winner Seles and blew kisses to the Melbourne Park centre court crowd as her father and coach Stefano cheered from the stands after her win.

Nearly a decade after her teen heyday, when she reached nine Grand Slam quarter-finals from 1990-93, Capriati looked stronger than ever against Seles, who she had never beaten in five previous Grand Slam matches.

"It's a lot of hard work that's paid off," Capriati said afterwards.

The 24-year-old was warned for throwing her racket after serving two double faults to hand Seles another break and a 4-2 lead in the second set.

Capriati will play defending champion Lindsay Davenport, who beat her in straight sets in the semi-finals last year. Davenport beat eighth seed Anna Kournikova 6-4, 6-3.

Capriati ended Seles's near perfect record in her five previous appearances at Melbourne Park, where she won in 1991-93 and again in 1996.

"Today it's just the case that she was better, and she played better in the key points," Seles said.