It is just as well Kirsten Flipkens is not one to follow doctors' orders. If she had, her career would have been long over - not once but twice.

The bespectacled Belgian proved it was the doctors, and not she, who were short-sighted as she defied the odds to reach her first Grand Slam semifinal on Tuesday with a stunning win over 2011 champion Petra Kvitova.

"I've been through a lot of ups and downs throughout my career. I've had so many injuries," Flipkens said after becoming the first Belgian to reach the last four at Wimbledon since Justine Henin in 2007.