Maria Sharapova schools Eugenie Bouchard to advance

The 20-year-old Bouchard reached the last four in Australia and France as well as the Wimbledon final in 2014 but was no match for Sharapova, who showed she was not ready to be usurped by the younger generation just yet in a 6-3 6-2 victory.

The 27-year-old has now beaten the Canadian in each of their four meetings, three of which have been at grand slams, and set up a meeting with 10th-seeded compatriot Ekaterina Makarova for a place in the final.

"I felt pretty good from the start (and) I kept my focus throughout the whole match," Sharapova told reporters. "I didn't feel that I had too many letdowns, which is important.

"When I did have a few slips I was able to come out with great first serves or really powerful returns.

"But overall really happy with the way the match went."

The Russian second seed jumped on a clearly nervous Bouchard from the first game of the match by breaking serve and did not allow her opponent to settle, which short-fused the Canadian's attacking ground game.

The Russian also controlled the baseline and pressured the Canadian's second serve, winning 15-of-21 points when Bouchard served a fault.

Her relentless attack also affected the Canadian's timing as she made 30 unforced errors, 20 in the first set alone as Sharapova broke again in the ninth game to take it in 41 minutes.

The five-times grand slam winner made another fast start in the second set, racing through her first service game and breaking again in the fourth to give her the opening she needed.

She applied the coup-de-grace when she drove her 15th forehand winner into the empty backhand side of the court and let out a massive yelp in celebration.

"I felt under pressure the whole time... and it kind of all went downhill from there," Bouchard said. "That's not how I want to play.

"It's definitely easier when you have a good start to the match."

"I'm never happy with losing. I wanted to obviously win today, win the tournament. But I feel like I dealt with pressure, outside expectations well."

Bouchard split with coach Nick Saviano in November, the man who guided her through her breakthrough season in 2014 and a maiden grand slam final for Canada at Wimbledon.

The reason for the surprise split remains unclear but Bouchard worked with Diego Ayala, a coach from her junior days and a previous mentor to former world number one Jelena Jankovic, during the Australian Open.

"That's something I'm going to focus on now," Bouchard told reporters. "I'm happy with the team I had here. I think we did okay, but it's something I need to adjust.

"Now that the tournament's over for me, I'm going to look at these decisions and see if I need to make one or not."

The 20-year-old said before her quarter-final that she was looking for an established player who had been to the top, raising speculation of another 'super-coach' appointment in the women's game.

However, she also said she was confident enough in her own game to deal with any problems she encountered on court without a full-time coach in the player's box.