U.S. Open winner Naomi Osaka will become the first Japanese world No. 3 in tennis' open era following Wednesday's win over reigning tour finals champion Elina Svitolina 6-4, 6-1 in the Australian Open quarterfinals.

The victory, her third against Ukraine's Svitolina in six tries, made her the first Japanese woman to advance to the Australian Open semifinals since Kimiko Date did so in 1994. Should Osaka win the final -- or if American Danielle Collins, ranked 35th in the world, does -- Osaka will be crowned world No. 1.

"For me, today, I just had one goal and it was to try as hard as I can and not get angry," said Osaka, who threw her racket in frustration during her third-round win over Taiwan's Hsieh Su-wei.

In her fourth-round win against Latvia's Anastasija Sevastova, Osaka had to pause to compose herself a few times as she battled back from a set down for the second straight match at Melbourne Park.

"I didn't do that well in the last two rounds, so that was my only goal, and I think I did it well. So, I'm really happy with how I played today," she said.

The Japanese fourth seed and current world No. 4, who has now won 58 straight matches in which she has taken the first set, has a chance to leave Melbourne with the world No. 1 ranking, according to the WTA.

In addition to reaching the semifinals, Osaka needs to equal or better Petra Kvitova's performance in the tournament to stay in contention for the No. 1 spot. Kvitova has already won through to the semifinals where she will meet unseeded American Danielle Collins.

On Wednesday at Rod Laver Arena, Osaka struggled with 19 unforced errors in the first set. However, she managed to break her opponent's serve in the 10th game to take a one-set lead when Svitolina could not counter a cross-court backhand, the Ukrainian dumping her reply into the net.

The break was one of three for the 21-year-old Japanese in the set.

After Osaka took a 3-0 lead in the second set, sixth-seeded Svitolina requested a medical timeout so she could get treatment on her right shoulder.

Despite the three-minute halt in play, Osaka maintained her momentum and patience, breaking her opponent twice more before closing the match out in one hour, 12 minutes with her eighth ace and a forehand winner on match point.

"I tried to be consistent, or as consistent as I can. She's a really good player and it's unfortunate that she got injured. But playing against her even when she was injured was still really tough," she said.

Osaka added she is looking forward to Thursday's semifinal in which she will meet Karolina Pliskova. The Czech player performed a miraculous escape from 1-5 in the deciding set to defeat Serena Williams 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 in the day's other quarterfinal.

Pliskova has a 2-1 lead over Osaka in their head-to-head series, the 26-year-old world No. 8 winning the players' last encounter 6-4, 6-4 in the final of the 2018 Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo in September.

Before Pliskova booked her semifinal spot, Osaka said no matter the opponent, it would require a fight against a "very great" player to reach the final.