World number two Novak Djokovic fought back from a set down to beat Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic 2-6 6-4 6-0 at the Dubai championships on Thursday, becoming only the second seed to make it through to the last four.
The holder's victory restored some luster to a tournament already nursing the early exit of five seeded players and the withdrawal of top-ranked Roger Federer and former U.S. Open champion Andy Roddick.
"(It was) a very slow start for me," said Djokovic, 22, whose win set up a semifinal on Friday with Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis, who beat Michael Berrer of Germany 7-6 6-1.
"I think he (Ljubicic) is serving as well as anybody on the tour right now," added Djokovic. "So I was just waiting for my opportunities and when I faced them I used them."
Ljubicic, 30, powered through the first set, dropping only two points on serve and breaking Djokovic twice.
The Serb upped his game in the second, hitting a series of unreturnable serves and increasingly moving into the net, though he still had no answer to the Ljubicic serve that regularly topped 210 kph.
Turning point
The turning point came at 3-3 when Djokovic saved two break points, the second one after a Ljubicic lob went well wide. Djokovic then converted his first break point of the match as a wild Ljubicic forehand gave the Serb the second set.
The 2008 Australian Open champion romped through the final set, running onto a slack drop shot that Ljubicic could only scuff wide to clinch victory.
"I knew that at a certain point he was going to miss a couple of first serves and that was my chance," Djokovic added.
Austrian Juergen Melzer beat sixth seed Marin Cilic 7-6 7-5 to set up a semifinal with Mikhail Youzhny after the Russian defeated Serb Janko Tipsarevic 6-3 6-4.
Cilic was the latest big name casualty after fellow seeds Andy Murray, Nikolay Davydenko, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gilles Simon all lost in the opening two rounds.
Melzer gained swift revenge for his semifinal defeat by Cilic at the Zagreb Indoors earlier this month.
"They were very tough conditions, with hot weather and the balls flying," said Melzer. "I kept my game together after being 4-1 down and then played an almost perfect match."
Heavy favorite
Cilic, 21, was heavy favorite going into the match after winning two tournaments already this year.
The Croatian went a break up but Melzer saved two break points in his next service game before a wide Cilic forehand gave the left-hander a break back.
"I was hitting the ball well and serving good," said Cilic. "Then I had a little bit of a rushed game on my serve and I lost three or four points in a row. From there, he started to play better. Melzer deserved it."
Cilic had set point at 7-6 in the tiebreak but Melzer hit a cross-court winner and went on to take it 10-8 with an ace.
Cilic switched to a more aggressive game but was unable to stop the Austrian getting to match point with a forehand winner. The Croatian then hit a backhand long to end the contest.
Seventh seed Youzhny wrapped up a routine win over a jaded Tipsarevic, who beat third seed Murray in three sets on Wednesday.
"I took advantage of Janko a little bit because he had a very tough match last night," said the Russian. "And I finished a little better than him."
The world number 15, who has been troubled by wrist and hamstring injuries, converted two of his three break points to reach the last four at the Dubai event for the fourth time.
Former Australian Open finalist Baghdatis, who dropped only eight points on serve against Berrer, clinched the first set tiebreak 7-5 when the German failed with a backhand smash.
Berrer saved three match points before a Baghdatis cross-court winner clinched victory.