Top seed Maria Sharapova stamped her authority on the Brisbane International when she downed Ukraine's Elina Svitolina 6-1, 6-3 in the semi-finals on Friday.

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Sharapova was in magnificent touch as she disposed of Svitolina to set up a dream final against Serbia's Ana Ivanovic on Saturday.

The Russian world number two also showed she will be a serious contender to win her second Australian Open when the year's first Grand Slam begins in just over a week.

Ivanovic reached the Brisbane final for the first time in four attempts when she saw off tenacious American Varvara Lepchenko 7-6 (7/2), 6-4.

The Serb appeared cruising for an easy win when she went ahead 5-1 in the second set.

But Lepchenko, who fought back from a similar position to beat Samantha Stosur in the first round, began to swing freely when her back was against the wall.

Ivanovic faltered under the pressure of the American's groundstrokes and dropped her serve to allow Lepchenko back into the set.

The American continued to go for broke, and saved six match points as she closed to 5-4.

However, Ivanovic at last held her nerve and took the match in one hour and 53 minutes.

Swiss great Roger Federer steamrolled his way into the semi-finals of the Brisbane International with a 39-minute demolition of Australian wildcard James Duckworth on Friday.

Federer barely raised a sweat as he won 6-0, 6-1, a total transformation from the player almost eliminated by unknown Australian John Millman on Thursday night.

Federer will now play fourth seed Grigor Dimitrov in the semi-finals following the Bulgarian's solid 6-3, 6-4 win over Slovakian Martin Klizan.

Second seed Kei Nishikori underlined how far he has progressed over the past 12 months with a 58-minute win over Australian hope Bernard Tomic.

Nishikori, who finished 2014 as world number five, raced through the first set in only 21 minutes.

Tomic recovered and put up a fight in the second, but Nishikori broke at 4-4 then comfortably held serve to book his place in the semi-finals.

Nishikori will take on Canada's Milos Raonic for a place in Sunday's final.

Third-seeded Raonic won the battle of the big servers when he downed Australian Sam Groth 7-6 (7/5), 3-6, 7-6 (7/2).