Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic rallied to beat Juan Monaco 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 Thursday to reach the semi-finals of the Indian Wells ATP Masters 1000.
A day after his victory over world number two Novak Djokovic, Ljubicic showed no sign of a letdown.
The former world number three, now ranked 26th in the world, scattered 11 aces through the one hour, 47 minute contest, finishing it off with three service winners.
Ljubicic, who celebrates his 31st birthday on Friday, improved on his best 2010 performance to date - a quarter-final run at Dubai last month. The last time he made it as far as the semi-finals in a prestigious Masters 1000 event was in Miami in 2007, and the last time he reached the semis of any ATP event was at Lyon last October - where he went on to win his ninth career title.
In the semi-finals Ljubicic will face either defending champion and third seed Rafael Nadal or Czech Tomas Berdych, who were to square off on Thursday night.
Nadal has won six of his nine career meetings with Berdych, his most recent victory coming in Spain's 5-0 triumph over Czech Republic in the 2009 Davis Cup final.
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Nadal is playing his first tournament since retiring with a knee injury trailing Andy Murray in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open.
In women's action, sixth-seeded Jelena Jankovic led the way into the semi-finals with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Russian Alisa Kleybanova.
Jankovic will face the winner of the night match between eighth-seeded Samantha Stosur of Australia and Spain's Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez.
