Tennis-Halep thrashes Kontaveit to reach Melbourne semis

Fourth seed Simona Halep took just 53 minutes to thrash Estonian Anett Kontaveit 6-1 6-1 and storm into the semi-finals of the Australian Open on Wednesday.

Halep had not lost a set in her previous two meetings with Kontaveit, who managed just one breakpoint on the former world number one's serve.

The Romanian, runner-up at Melbourne Park in 2018, will meet either Spaniard Garbine Muguruza or Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia for a place in Saturday's final.