Courageous Mirjana Lucic-Baroni kept her fairytale Australian Open alive on Wednesday by stunning fifth seed Karolina Pliskova to make her first Grand Slam semi-final since Wimbledon in 1999.
The unseeded Croat, a former teenage prodigy whose career was derailed by personal trauma, used all her experience to upset the Czech 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in a Rod Laver Arena epic, before collapsing on court in tears.
Her emotional win sets up a last-four clash with six-time champion Serena Williams, who defeated Britain's Johanna Konta 6-2, 6-3, for a place in the final to write another chapter in her inspiring story of perseverance.
Venus Williams plays fellow American Coco Vandeweghe in the other semi-final.
"I can't believe this. This is crazy. The only thing I can say is God is good. That's all I can say. I can't believe it. I feel a little bit in shock," she said, sobbing uncontrollably. "To me, this is overwhelming. I will never forget this day and the last couple of weeks. This has truly made my life, and everything bad that happened, (it) has made it okay."
Her comeback has been the feel-good story of the tournament, having dropped out of top-level tennis for most of the 2003-2010 period after fleeing an abusive father and suffering money and injury problems.