Paris - Swedish surprise Robin Soderling nailed his third straight victory over a seed, following up his weekend upset of Rafael Nadal with a 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 hammering of Nikolay Davydenko to elbow into the semi-finals of the French Open Tuesday.

Two days after stunning Spain's king of clay in the shock of the tournament, the number 25 who has never won a clay title finds himself Thursday facing the winner from Andy Murray and Fernando Gonzalez.

Soderling continued to live a tennis dream, which began when he upset Spain's 14th seed David Ferrer in the third round last week before toppling four-time winner Nadal.

The Swede stunned Davydenko, a two-time Paris semi-finalist, with 34 winners and six breaks of serve as the 24-year-old Soderling lifted his modest Grand Slam record to 20-21.

Third seed Murray was bidding to continue the run of form which has taken him to new heights on clay when he played Chile's 12th seed Gonzalez later.

Women's world number one Dinara Safin of Russia had to rescue her match to keep the distance between chasing Serena Williams, coming back for a 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 defeat of Victoria Azarenka.

The Belarus bomber who won the Miami title in April, looked on her way in the first set to a knockout of the top seed, who needed to win to hold off number 2 Williams in the rankings chase.

Safina had dropped just five games in reaching the quarter-finals, but suddenly found herself in a match against the promising youngster.

The Russian improved to 33-6 on the season after winning clay titles at her last two events in Rome and Madrid. (dpa)