The 20th seed, in her best performance at Melbourne Park, marched past the Romanian 6-3, 6-0 and will play either defending champion Victoria Azarenka or fifth seed Agnieszka Radwanska in the last four.

The short but energetic Cibulkova drew on her experience to down the aggressive baseliner, who went into the clash as favourite after a breakthrough season last year when she won six titles.