Ekaterina Makarova into semifinals

— -- NEW YORK -- Ekaterina Makarova reached her first Grand Slam semifinal, beating Victoria Azarenka in straight sets Wednesday at the U.S. Open.

The 26-year-old Russian won 6-4, 6-2 after losing her previous four major quarterfinals.

"I'm feeling amazing," she said. "Finally I'm in a semifinal."

Azarenka's manager said she had food poisoning Tuesday. Her PR representative told ESPN that Azarenka had eaten some bad sushi Monday night. 

"You know what? I don't really want to talk about it," Azarenka said when asked after the match about the food poisoning. "I just, you know, want to give credit to my opponent. She played really well today. Am I disappointed? Yes, I'm disappointed. But I feel like I tried my best with whatever I had."

Unusually subdued for most of the match, Azarenka smashed her racket after one of her 27 unforced errors gave Makarova a break and a 4-2 lead in the second set.

"I'm not going to make any excuses today. As I said, I did the best I could today," Azarenka said. "I want to give full credit to my opponent. She deserves to win. She played much better than me today. That's it."

The players were 16th and 17th in the seedings but came in with very different resumes. Azarenka is a two-time Australian Open champion who lost to Serena Williams in the last two U.S. Open finals.

But her ranking slipped after a season interrupted by injuries. She often looked shaky against qualifier Aleksandra Krunic in the fourth round but eked out a three-set victory.

Makarova, meanwhile, upset Wimbledon runner-up Eugenie Bouchard in straight sets. On Wednesday, she took full advantage of Azarenka's mistakes, the lefty's deep groundstrokes keeping on pressure.

Makarova had lost to Lucie Safarova in straight sets in the Wimbledon quarterfinals this summer. She has yet to drop a set at Flushing Meadows.

Her semifinal opponent could be Williams. The two-time defending champ faces 11th-seeded Flavia Pennetta to open the night session at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray take the court after that for a rematch of the 2012 U.S. Open final. Stan Wawrinka meets Kei Nishikori in the other men's quarterfinal Wednesday afternoon.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.