Three of the top four seeds were untroubled as they reached the semi-finals at Auckland's Heineken tennis Open in straight sets.
But the night quarter-final match went the distance, before French wildcard Gael Monfils upset the German third seed Tommy Haas in three sets, 3-6 7-5 6-3.
Monfils now plays the defending champion David Ferrer, who had no problems in his quarter, the Spaniard racing past unseeded Slovak Lukas Lacko 6-2 6-1 in just 54 minutes.
The German second seed Philip Kohlschreiber beat Belgian Xavier Malisse 7-6 6-4 to book his semi against fourth seed Sam Querrey, the big-serving American blowing Canadian qualifier Jesse Levine off centre court with 17 aces, winning 6-4 7-6.
