Alex Corretja, the wily old fox of clay-court tennis, cruised through to the second French Open semi-final of his career this afternoon.
The 27-year-old Spaniard proved too cunning for Swiss teenager Roger Federer, running out a comfortable straight sets winner 7-5 6-4 7-5 in two hours and 45 minutes.
Corretja, who was runner-up at Roland Garros to Carlos Moya in 1998, was playing his fourth consecutive quarter-final and 19-year-old Federer struggled to cope with such experience.
The pair swapped service breaks and marathon rallies at will throughout the match, but it was Corretja's ability to improvise, with deft drop shots and a string of instinctive half-volley winners which was the difference.
Not even a short rain break with Corretja leading 3-2 in the third set could rescue Federer, the junior singles champion at Wimbledon three years ago and a player tipped by Boris Becker to become a tennis great.
At least the young Swiss went down fighting, battling back with a series of blistering backhands to break Corretja's serve in the 10th game when the Spaniard was serving for the match.
Unfortunately, in a microcosm of the match, Federer then proceeded to lose his own service in the next game to allow Corretja, despite squandering three match points, to close out the clash with a rasping backhand down the line.
"It is a great victory for me," said Corretja. "Roger is an excellent player, he has improved a lot over the last month and I'm happy to be in the semis like 1998.
"I'm playing with confidence. I've won four matches in a row in three sets and that's important. I rested a lot at the beginning of the year and that is helping me play well now." Corretja now plays the winner of the last quarter-final between Andre Agassi and Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean.
-PA