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Uruguayan qualifier Pablo Cuevas reached his second tour semi-final of what looks to be his breakthrough season on Friday when he swept past Spaniard Nicolas Almagro 6-2 6-4 at ATP Hamburg.

Cuevas will meet Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu who led 3-0 in the first set against Viktor Troicki before the Serb retired with a foot injury.

World number 107 Cuevas sailed through the first set, his lethal topspin backhand landing him two breaks against an opponent ranked 67 places above him.

The 2008 French Open doubles champion then got the break he wanted in the fifth game of the second set, saving two break points in the next game to hold serve and go 4-2 up.

The 23-year-old comfortably held on to his lead to win the match four games later.

In the other half of the draw, second seed Nikolay Davydenko edged past Romanian Victor Hanescu 6-3 4-6 6-3 to book his spot in the last four where he meets Spaniard David Ferrer.

Davydenko carved out an advantage early on when he broke Hanescu in the first game and held serve to go 2-0 up. He again broke the Romanian, runner-up in Stuttgart last week, to clinch the first set 6-3.

The 28-year-old, without a tournament win this season, served superbly for a set and a half allowing no single break opportunity for Hanescu, who hung in though to clinch the second set with a solitary break at 2-2.

Davydenko, who has only played a handful of tournaments due to a heel injury early in the year, recovered in the third set, firing a string of baseline winners to break his 28-year-old opponent and clinch victory on his fifth match point.

"It is a good result for me because I have not played a lot this year. Hanescu played in the final in Stuttgart so this was very hard for me," said Davydenko.

Sixth seed Ferrer was the last man to clinch his semi-final spot ousting German wild card entrant Simon Greul 6-2 6-3.

Reuters