Melbourne:Nicole Vaidisova won a battle of Czech teenagers as she beat compatriot LucieSafarova 6-1, 6-4 Tuesday in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open to moveinto her second Grand Slam semi-final.

The 17-year-old fired seven aces and broke three timesagainst Safarova, 19, who had upset defending champion Amelie Mauresmo in thefourth round.

Vaidisova reached the final four on clay at Roland Garroslast year in her big-match breakthrough. She will face the winner of a matchbetween Serena Williams and Israeli outsider Shahar Peer.
 

Safarova was unable to duplicate her form of 48 hoursearlier against Mauresmo as she dropped to 1-3 against her compatriot.

The match was the first time in nearly 10 years that twoCzech women have reached a major quarterfinal. Denisa Chladkova and JanaNovotna last accomplished the feat in 1997 at Wimbledon.
 

The last time two Czech-born women reached the AustralianOpen quarterfinals was in 1988, when Hana Mandlikova and Helena Sukovaadvanced.

"It feels great," Vaidisova said.

 "I've had sometough matches (a win over seventh seed Elena Dementieva in the fourth round).To play a compatriot is always tough, but I'm happy I'm through. It's great forCzech tennis to have two players in the quarters," she said.