Defending champion Lleyton Hewitt was dumped out of Halle's ATP grasscourt tennis tournament after he went down in straight sets to Philipp Kohlschreiber in the quarter-finals.
Kohlschreiber reached the semi-finals at the German tournament for the fourth time in his career after securing a 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 win over the former world No.1 in exactly 90 minutes.
The German smashed down 14 aces, compared to the Australian's nine, in a hard-fought match and the defeat means Hewitt, who is making his comeback after ankle surgery, is set to drop out of the top 100 in the ATP rankings.
Kohlschreiber will play Gael Monfils in Sunday's semi-final after the Frenchman beat Germany's Florian Mayer 6-4 6-4 in little over an hour.
After the withdrawal of world No.3 Roger Federer on Monday, Tomas Berdych became the top seed and the winner of the 2007 tournament had few problems as he enjoyed a 7-6 (7-3) 6-1 quarter-final win over fifth-seed Viktor Troicki.
Berdych will meet Philipp Petzschner in his semi-final after the German earlier booked his place by knocking out eighth-seeded Canadian newcomer Milos Raoni.
