The impressive run of French qualifier Adrian Mannarino at Auckland's Heineken tennis Open is over.
The world number 80 was finally ousted in his sixth straight match by second seed Nicolas Almagro, but the Spaniard needed two tiebreaks before winning 7-6 6-7 6-2.
The American defending champion John Isner's playing Argentine David Nalbandian in the day's third quarter-final.
The Spanish top seed David Ferrer was the first player into the semi-finals after he beat Philipp Kohlschreiber in three sets to improve his head-to-head over the German to 6 wins to 3.
But Ferrer says the 6-3 7-6 6-3 victory over Kohlschreiber wasn't easy.
Ferrer now plays either Colombian ATP Tour debutant Santiago Giraldo or top Brazilian player Thomaz Bellucci, who face off in the night quarterfinal.
