Fourth seed Marat Safin eased into the men's singles semi-finals of the Australian Open on Tuesday, crushing 20th seed Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia 6-2, 6-4, 6-2.

The Russian, runner-up at Melbourne Park in two of the past three years, raced to a one-sided victory in only 90 minutes to set up a clash with top seed and defending champion Roger Federer or four-times winner Andre Agassi, the eighth seed.

Hrbaty had beaten French Open champion Gaston Gaudio and former Australian Open winner Thomas Johansson on his way to the last eight but he was helpless as an inspired Safin hit 33 clean winners.

The Russian admitted he had been worried about playing the Slovakian, the two having shared their previous 12 meetings.