Top seed Janko Tipsarevic saw his bid for glory at the BMW Open in Munich end on Friday as he was knocked out in the quarter-finals by unseeded German Daniel Brands.
Tipsarevic was seeking his second title of the year but the Serbian came unstuck against world number 69 Brands, who progressed through 6-3 4-6 6-4 in a match that lasted one hour and 37 minutes.
Brands will now face defending champion and compatriot Philipp Kohlschreiber, who also got the better of a Serbian opponent as the fourth seed saw off Viktor Troicki 6-3 7-6 (7/3).
Three of the four semi-final spots were claimed by Germans with third seed Tommy Haas also progressing through with a 6-4 6-1 victory over his countryman Florian Mayer, the sixth seed here.
Standing in the way of world number 14 Haas and the possibility of a home winner is Ivan Dodig, who added fifth seed Alexandr Dolgopolov to his impressive list of notable scalps this week.
Croatian Dodig, ranked 56 in the world, beat two-time former winner Nikolay Davydenko and second-seeded compatriot Marin Cilic – runner-up in 2010 and again last year – in the opening two rounds without dropping a set, and Dolgopolov was dispatched in similar fashion on Friday.
The 28-year-old Dodig needed one hour 17 to see off his Ukrainian opponent 6-4 6-4 as he moved a step closer to his third ATP final.