Showing no signs of the sprained ankle that contributed to her second-round exit at the Australian Open, Seles had all the answers on the big points against the big-hitting Russian at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.
The 29-year-old forced her opponent into a backhand error to take the first set and appeared to be cruising when she rattled off four straight games to take a 4-0 lead in the second.
However, the 129th-ranked Krasnoroutskaya dug in and went for broke, catching Seles by surprise with some thunderous passing shots to pull level at 4-4.
Seles, though, simply refused to be dragged into a third set and the former world number one stepped up the pressure with Krasnoroutskaya serving to stay in the match at 5-4
Seles closed out proceedings on her second match-point when a wild forehand from Krasnoroutskaya sailed over the baseline after 79 minutes on court.
"I'm just really happy my ankle has held up. It still hurts a lot not doing so well in Australia, but at least getting this far here and getting through two tough matches has been positive," said Seles.
The nine-times grand slam winner, will play fellow American Chanda Rubin in the semi-finals. The fourth-seeded Rubin recovered from an erratic start to beat Russian eighth seed Elena Dementieva 3-6, 6-1, 6-3.