Flavia Pennetta is confident of becoming the first Italian woman in the US Open singles final when she takes on second seed Victoria Azarenka.
The unseeded 31-year-old is the surprise player in the last four, with top seed and defending champion Serena Williams taking on China's fifth seed Li Na in Friday's other semi-final.
"I have nothing to lose," said Pennetta, the world number 83.
"I'm confident because I'm here and I don't feel the pressure right now."
Pennetta's previous best at Flushing Meadows was reaching the quarter-finals on three occasions - her best performances at a Grand Slam.
Her opponent, Azarenka, is a two-time Australian Open champion and last year's US Open runner-up. At 24, the Belarusian is the only semi-finalist aged under 30.
The pair had been due to play in the second round at Wimbledon in June but Azarenka withdrew with a knee injury and took a month off - and she feels the break has benefited her game.
"I came back on another fitness level," she said. "I feel like I have heavier shots now, I direct the ball better and I can reach the balls that I maybe wasn't able to reach because of my flexibility before."
Azarenka beat Daniela Hantuchova 6-2 6-3 to move into the last four and set up a meeting with Pennetta, who beat her fellow Italian Roberta Vinci 6-4 6-1.
The other semi-final sees America's 16-time Grand Slam champion Williams take on Li.
Williams, the 1999, 2002, 2008 and 2012 US Open champion has lost just 13 games in the tournament so far and thrashed Carla Suarez Navarro 6-0 6-0 in the quarter-final.
Even though she leads her head-to-head record with Li 8-1 she is wary of her Chinese opponent.
"She moves really well," said Williams. "The challenge of playing someone like her is: how do you beat a player that does everything so well?
"I'm going to have to think about that and come up with an answer."
Li, like Pennetta, is hoping to become the first woman from her country to reach a US Open singles final. She finished runner-up at the Australian Open and matched her career best at Wimbledon by reaching the quarter-finals before this excellent run to the last four in New York.
She puts some of her success down to working with coach Carlos Rodriguez since last summer, after being coached in various spells by her husband Jiang Shan.
She said of Rodriguez: "At least if he says something I will listen. But if my husband is my coach, when he says something, I never listen."
Li had an erratic 6-4 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 victory over Russia's Ekaterina Makarova in her quarter-final - the fifth seed mixed 44 winners with 42 unforced errors.
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