Tennis ace Eugenie Bouchard of Canada cruises to her first semifinal round appearance in 10 months as she battled intense heat to beat higher-ranked Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia on Wednesday at the ongoing 2016  Apia International Sydney.

On a stifling day where temperatures topped over 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), the former Wimbledon finalist got the better of current world No. 27 Pavlyuchenkova with  a 6-2, 6-3 victory, according to Yahoo Sports. The match lasted for an hour and 16 minutes and placed Bouchard to set up a semifinals showdown with British women's singles world No. 10 Johanna Konta on Thursday.

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The upcoming match will be Bouchard's first WTA Tour semifinal since the Malaysian Open in March last year.

"It's a good step in the right direction. I know there is a long way to go to achieve what I want," Bouchard, who currently ranks No. 49 in the world, said.

The right-handed Canadian tennis player battled her way to the final four after tough matches against Chinese world No.23 Shang Shuai in the opening round and world No.6 Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia in the second round.

According to the official website of the WTA, Bouchard enjoys a 1-0 edge over the 2016 Australian Open semifinalist. She defeated the 25-year-old Konta at the last year's Winbledon in three sets 6-3, 1-6, 6-1.

"I barely got through the last one. She's a top-10 player. She's playing her best tennis right now," the 22-year-old native of Montreal, Quebec said of Konta.

Konta continued her imposing progress through the Sydney-based tennis tournament with a 6-3, 7-5 triumph over the rising young Russian Daria Kasatkina, who had stunned the ruling world No.1 Angelique Kerber  of Germany in Tuesday's second round.

In 2014, Bouchard became the first Canadian-born player representing Canada to reach the finals of a Grand Slam in singles at the Wimbledon. She also reached the semifinals of the Australian Open and the French Open of the same year.

TagsEugenie Bouchard, 2016 apia international sydney, wta, Johanna Konta, Zhang Shuai