China's Peng powers her way into US Open semi-finals

China's Peng Shuai powered her way into her first Grand Slam semi-final with a dominant 6-2 6-1 victory over Swiss teenager Belinda Bencic on Tuesday.

The 28-year-old world number 39 played a superb opening set, breaking her 17-year-old opponent twice, reports the BBC.

She broke Bencic, ranked 59 in the world, again in the second game of the second set as she eased to victory.

An emotional Peng described the place she was in as an amazing and exciting time for herself, and added that she just loved playing tennis.

Peng will now face either 10th seed Caroline Wozniacki or 13th seed Sara Errani in the last four.

In the men's competition, 14th seed Marin Cilic needed five sets to reach the quarter-finals after a 5-7 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 3-6 6-3 win over 26th seed Gilles Simon of France.

The Croat will meet sixth seed Tomas Berdych who raced to a straight sets victory over promising Austrian youngster Dominic Thiem 6-1 6-2 6-4 in one hour and 38 minutes.