Serena Williams steamrolled Maria Sharapova, 6-4, 6-1, to roar into her seventh Australian Open semifinal.
"I was just dealing with some food-poisoning issues", Williams said, when asked why she consulted a doctor throughout a lopsided second set.
Her grip on the title looks unlikely to be threatened in the semi-finals by world number four Agnieszka Radwanska, who has lost all eight of her matches against the world number one.
"When you're playing someone who's so great, you have to come out with a lot of fire and intensity", she added.
The fifth seed went down 6-4, 6-1 to Williams in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open on Tuesday, handing Williams a 19-2 head-to-head advantage.
Federer is blessed with seemingly eternal youth, although he has not won a Grand Slam since Wimbledon 2012, when he beat Murray.
Roger Federer set up a potential semi-final clash with world number one Novak Djokovic following a clinical straight-sets win over Tomas Berdych at the Australian Open.
Williams has reached the last four at Melbourne Park on six previous occasions and gone on to win the title every time.
Zhang, who was 0-14 in Grand Slam matches entering this tournament, will play Johanna Konta, who had a 4-6, 6-4, 8-6 win over 2015 semifinalist Ekaterina Makarova and became the first British woman since Jo Durie in 1983 to advance to the quarterfinals in Australia. And, after all, she's going to win one day and when she does it won't be an upset, it'll merely be the inevitability of probability.
Sharapova struck a career-high 21 aces Sunday against Belinda Bencic when rain forced their encounter to be played indoors, but Mouratoglou doubted she could do it again.
Williams has now beaten Sharapova in 18 successive matches. At 4-4, Williams fended off two break points in a grueling game. "I think if you're serving maybe 180 against somebody else compared to Serena, that's an ace", Sharapova said.
"Any round (against Federer) feels like a final because of the fact that we are, you know, big rivals, we played so many times against each other", Djokovic said.
Meanwhile, Djokovic is seeking his 11th Grand Slam title while Federer, 34, is looking to extend his record tally to 18 - and both will want to take charge of their head-to-head, which is locked at 22-22. But there were very few matches where I was satisfied.
But once Williams was into her rhythm on Melbourne's courts, those hopes seemed to evaporate as quickly as rain from its hot courts.
"Plus, when I play her, I know automatically I have to step up my game".
The Spanish 10th seed was no match for her Polish opponent, who is now on a 13-match unbeaten run following her success at the Shenzhen Open last month.
Sharapova said: "It's motivating because she's at a different level".
"Right now, I have nothing to lose", Radwanska said. "It doesn't matter who I'm playing, I just try to go out there and play the best I can". "I'll have to keep getting to the point where I have an opportunity to play against her, keep finding a way to turn that around", she said.
Williams also had to concentrate hard to hold in the ninth game, when a baby screamed loudly in the stands as she faced breakpoints.
Sharapova said her lopsided record against Williams is, not surprisingly, a source of frustration.
Since she suffered a 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 loss to Sharapova in the WTA Tour Championships final in November, 2004, Williams has won 36 of the 39 sets they've played, including a 6-3, 7-6 (5) triumph in the Australian Open final last February. "I still don't think it's something I can heavily rely on".
"It's motivating because she's at a different level". Thought at times, when I got in the rally I wasn't moving forward, wasn't cutting the angles off enough.
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