China’s Li Na has advanced to the last four at the Australian Open for the fourth time in the past five years with a 6-2 6-2 demolition of Italian Flavia Pennetta.

In a match between two 31-year-olds, Li needed only 67 minutes to end Pennetta’s best Open campaign and advance to a semi-final against either Serb Ana Ivanovic or rising Canadian star Eugenie Bouchard.

Although Li claimed her only major title to date three years ago at the French Open, it is at Melbourne Park where she has performed most consistently at grand slam level.

She lost the 2011 and 2013 finals to Kim Clijsters and Victoria Azarenka and also reached the Australian Open semis in 2010.

“I always look forward to coming back to Melbourne,” said Li.

“I hope I can do one more step this year.”

The Chinese player has dropped only four games in her most recent two matches against Ekaterina Makarova and Pennetta after coming back from match point down to squeeze past Czech Lucie Safarova in the third round.

“Of course I got a lot of confidence from that,” said Li.

“Finally I came back to win that match.”

Li dominated the outright winners’ count 23-14 against Pennetta and also committed 10 less unforced errors than her outgunned Italian opponent.