Spain's Rafael Nadal kept his Pacific Life Open title defense on track on Thursday with a 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 quarterfinal victory over American James Blake.
Nadal, the second seed, earned his first victory over Blake in four career meetings.
He booked a semifinal showdown with Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic, who defeated 35th ranked Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka 7-6 (7/5), 6-2.
Nadal beat Djokovic in the final of this $5.7 million WTA and ATP Masters Series tournament last year.
Nadal had been thwarted by Blake in all three of their previous meetings, the last at the Tennis Masters Cup in 2006, when he dropped a second-set tiebreaker 7-0.
This time around, Nadal earned the lone break of the third set in the eighth game to take 5-3 lead, pouncing remorselessly on Blake's second serves.
"I thought if I have the chance with the second serve in that game, I was going to play aggressive," Nadal said. "I was going to try to do the winner with the forehand."
Nadal served out the match to love, firing his sixth ace of the contest on match point and dropping to his knees in celebration.
He said his reaction reflected the cumulative emotion of the win over James, and his narrow fourth-round victory over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Nadal trailed 2-5 in the third set in that match on Wednesday and held on for the victory.
"The thing is not beating James, the thing is being in the semifinals and beating two big players like Tsonga and Blake," Nadal said. "For me, it was two very important matches."
Nadal said he knew Blake would display his characteristic aggressive style, and sure enough the American used it to control the second set.
Blake broke in the second game and never surrendered the advantage, but Nadal said he never felt the momentum had swung too far from him.
The pair had traded breaks in the first set before Nadal seized the decisive break in the 11th game for a 6-5 lead. Nadal fended off three break points in the next game to pocket the set.
"I figured it was going to come down to who's going to play a couple of big points better," Blake said.
Earlier Thursday, Djokovic and Wawrinka delighted the stadium court crowd with an entertaining, if erratic match.
A sparkling rally on set point finally ended with Wawrinka knocking a forehand wide.
"It's very important to me," said Djokovic, who dropped to his knees and thumped his chest in celebration after the point. "I'm a very emotional player on the court and very emotional person off the court as well. As you could see by the reaction, it was probably the most important point of the game."
Both players served for the opening set, and each was broken for a third time as it went to the tiebreaker.
Djokovic's chance came at 5-3, while Wawrinka had a chance at 6-5.
"You know, 6-5, he was serving for the set, it could go either way," Djokovic said. "I played well that game, and I gave myself another opportunity, which I used."
The men's quarterfinals continue on Friday when top seed and world No 1 Roger Federer faced unseeded German Tommy Haas and seventh-seeded Argentinian David Nalbandian took on unseeded American Mardy Fish.
The women's semifinal line-up was completed as top seed Ana Ivanovic of Serbia defeated Russian Vera Zvonarave 6-1, 6-4 to advance to a meeting with third-seeded compatriot Jelena Jankovic. Jankovic was leading 6-2 when US veteran Lindsay Davenport retired from their quarterfinal with a back injury.
Australian Open champion Maria Sharapova, the fourth seed, and second-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova had already booked an all-Russian semifinal - so that final four berths were filled by the top four seeds.
(Agencies via China Daily March 22, 2008)