NICOLA Adams has the wind in her sails after breezing past Bulgarian Stoyka Petrova to book her place in the semi-finals of the women's flyweight competition at the European Games in Baku.

Bradford-trained Adams admits the near-constant 40mph winds in the Azerbaijani capital have played havoc with her hairstyle, but Petrova too was no pushover as she took the first round on two of the three judges' score cards.

Victory gave Adams a guaranteed medal for Great Britain and the 32-year-old will box for a place in the final of the inaugural Games when she faces enthusiastic Turk Elif Coskun in their last-four clash on Wednesday.

Adams said: "I've actually found a way to get away from the wind – I wear a hat now. I got my hair done last year and I quite like it. It doesn't take too long to get ready – about 15 minutes, so it's a lot easier than before."

Petrova, who handed Adams her last defeat in the European Championships in Bucharest last year, was busy enough to win the second too on one judges' card, but Adams was dispatching the sharper work by the halfway stage.

Two long-range rights at the end of the third cemented Adams' dominance and a good fourth saw her through what is likely to prove to have been her toughest assignment in Baku.

Two of the judges scored the bout 39-37 in Adams' favour, with the third judge having the fighters tied on 38-38.

Adams added: "It's shame it wasn't a final because I think it would have been really nice for the crowd to see, but I've still got to treat every opponent as if it's a final.

"I'm the Olympic champion and the Commonwealth Games champion and now I've got a European Games medal. Every opponent wants to come and beat Nicola Adams so I have to make sure I bring my A-game."