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The 23-year-old Wimbledon champion, who climbed
to the top of the WTA rankings on Monday, hardly broke sweat
against the Frenchwoman, ranked 20th in the world, on her way to
victory in an hour and 20 minutes.
Muguruza took a 2-1 lead in the first set after an early break
and continued to dominate until midway through the second,
nullifying Garcia's serve twice more as she looked to close out
the contest quickly.
Garcia, however, staged a mini-revival when she converted her
only break-point opportunity in the sixth game of the second but
the Spaniard regained control of the contest with another break
in the very next game.
The 2016 French Open winner will face either defending champion
Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark or Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova
in the last four.
Earlier, Germany's Angelique Kerber won a battle of former world
number ones against Karolina Pliskova 7-6(5) 7-5 to set up a
semi-final clash against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
The two-time grand slam champion, who defeated her Czech
opponent in their last meeting at the 2016 U.S. Open final,
converted her fifth match point to register a first win over a
top-20 player this season.
"Being back in the semis here in Tokyo is a great feeling," said
Kerber, who last reached the semi-finals at the event in 2014,
in a courtside interview.
"It's always tough to play against (Pliskova), so I was trying
to focus on my game. I think I played a good match today."
Nimble on her feet, Kerber, who has dropped to world number 14
since storming to the Australian and U.S. Open titles last year,
put immense pressure on Pliskova's serve but failed to convert
12 of her 13 break-point opportunities.
She did, however, hold her nerve during the first set tie-break
to edge ahead and then finally broke in the 12th game of the
second set to seal a spot in the last four.
Russian Pavlyuchenkova defeated another Czech player, Barbora
Strycova, 5-7 6-3 6-1 to advance to the semi-finals.
(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly in Mumbai; Editing by John
O'Brien)
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