Clijsters ousts Stosur

With both players struggling to hold serve in windy conditions on Arthur Ashe centre court, the second-seeded Belgian steadied herself at the end to complete a 6-4 5-7 6-3 win that set up a showdown against American Venus Williams.

Clijsters stopped a string of six successive service breaks at the start of the final set to seize a 4-3 lead before breaking Stosur again and then holding serve to end it.

The victory was the 19th in a row for Clijsters at Flushing Meadows, including her championship run in 2005. Injury and then a temporary retirement to begin a family kept her away from the tournament until her triumphant return last year.

Williams, like Clijsters a two-time US Open winner, defeated French Open champion Francesca Schiavone 7-6(5) 6-4 in the day's other women's quarter-final.

The 30-year-old American, seeded third and champion at Flushing Meadows in 2000 and 2001, had a little too much power for the seventh seed, battling through in one hour and 54 minutes to reach the last four for the eighth time.

"She played a great match," Williams said in a courtside interview. "It's not easy to play in these conditions, it's hard to know what decisions to make, but she played excellent."

Schiavone, who became the first Italian woman to win a Grand Slam singles title when she won the French Open in June, recovered from 4-2 down to force a tiebreak in the first set.

Breezy conditions made life difficult for both players and Schiavone came from 4-0 down in the tiebreak to make it 4-4 before Williams, wearing a sparkling pink dress, closed it out 7-5.

The American then stormed to a 4-1 lead in the second set only for the resilient Schiavone to break back and get on serve again at 4-3.

The Italian enjoyed plenty of success by feeding short slices to Williams, who made 33 unforced errors.

Williams broke again to lead 5-3 but once more, the Italian broke back, only for Williams to break yet again to clinch victory.