Sixth seed Marat Safin defeated former world number one Lleyton Hewitt to make the Paris Masters semi-finals. The Russian ousted the second seed 6-4 7-6 (7/2) and will now meet 13th seed Guillermo Canas, who beat Spain's Feliciano Lopez 6-3 6-3.
Czech qualifier Radek Stepanek booked his place in the last four by seeing off Mikhail Youzhny 7-6 (7/1) 6-3.
He will take on Max Mirnyi - who beat Robin Soderling 6-7 (5/7) 6-4 7-6 (7/5) - in the semi-finals.
Safin, who hit 10 aces in his defeat of Hewitt, is looking for his third Paris Masters title, a feat only previously achieved by Boris Becker.
His next opponent, Canas is looking for his fourth title of the year, after winning tournaments in Stuttgart, Umag and Shanghai.
In the other semi, Stepanek is on course to reach the first tournament final of his career.
He is ranked 63 in the world but has been in superb form in Paris and is still to drop his first set of the tournament.
MMIX
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