updated 1:28 a.m. ET Jan. 24, 2007

MELBOURNE, Australia - Kim Clijsters had another quarterfinal win over Martina Hingis despite a rash of unforced errors, and moved into the Australian Open semifinals against top-seeded Maria Sharapova.

Fourth-seeded Clijsters won 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 Wednesday, breaking Hingis’ serve in the last game and ending the match with a forehand passing shot.

“I wasn’t really seeing the ball, the only thing you can do is to work for every point to try to turn things around,” said Clijsters, who made 62 unforced errors and dropped serve five times. “I knew it was going to be a tough one. It could have been my last match here, so I’m glad to have one more.”

Clijsters, who plans to retire at the end of the season, said she would have to be sharp from the start against Sharapova.

“She fights a lot, she’s an incredible athlete,” said Clijsters. “Hopefully I’ll hit a lot less than 62 unforced errors.”

Clijsters ended Hingis’ remarkable comeback run here in the quarterfinals last year, when the Swiss star was ranked No. 349 and returning from three years off the circuit because of injuries. She also beat Hingis in the quarterfinals at the French Open.

Hingis had won three straight Australian Open titles from 1997-99 and then lost three consecutive finals before quitting the first time.

“It’s my most disappointing loss against her,” said Hingis, who is 0-4 against Clijsters since her comeback and 4-5 overall.

She used all her experience to mix it up this time against Hingis, drawing her to the net and working her from sideline to sideline.

“I always tried to give her a different look at a ball, that’s why she made so many unforced errors,” Hingis said. “That’s my game. It worked for a set and a half, but you have to keep it going.”

Clijsters has made the semifinals here on every trip since 2002 — missing the 2005 tournament because of injuries — but has never won the title.

Sharapova advanced to the Australian Open semifinals for the third straight year with a 7-6 (5), 7-5 win over Anna Chakvetadze, another 19-year-old Russian.

She had trouble on her serve, double-faulting on break point three times, but she had the only point on serve in the tiebreaker.

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Sharapova was very inconsistent, smacking clean winners to take one game, then committing glaring mistakes to lose the next. She finished with 32 winners but six double faults and 41 unforced errors and won only three more points than her opponent.

The U.S. Open champion was broken when serving for the match at 5-3 and wasted a match point with a backhand error in the next game. She made no mistake in the 12th game, finishing off in 2 hours, 14 minutes when Chakvetadze netted a forehand.

“It was very difficult, I didn’t feel like we had a lot of easy rallies,” Sharapova said. “I felt I had to work on every point.”

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Sharapova, who looks toward her father, Yuri, sitting in the stands after almost every point, got a warning for getting coaching from him as she served at 0-30 with the score tied at 2-2 in the second set. She then ran off four straight points to take the game.

“I was a little up and down, a bit scratchy,” Sharapova said. “I am glad I got through, but next time will even be tougher.”

Clijsters, who had looked so sharp in her first four matches here, started quickly, winning nine of the first 10 points, before running into trouble.

She bashed 23 unforced errors in the first set and double-faulted on set point.

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