Kei Nishikori remains on course to defend his Barcelona Open title after beating seventh seed Roberto Bautista Agut to reach the semi-finals.
The world number five will face Martin Klizan in the last four on Saturday after sealing a 6-2 3-6 6-1 victory to end Bautista Agut's hopes of a triumph on home soil this week.
Top seed Nishikori hit 25 winners and was broken only once as he came out on top in a match that lasted an hour and 40 minutes.
Nishikori has only lost one of the 19 matches in a ATP World Tour tournament when he has been the top seed and again appears to be thriving on the expectation.
He said: "I'm really happy with the way I’m playing right now, especially in the third set. It was a really tough match."
Four-time Barcelona Open finalist David Ferrer ousted Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3 7-6 (7-5) to retain his hopes of winning the tournament for the first time.
The third seed was broken four times, but claimed five breaks of his own as he beat the German in an hour and 44 minutes.
Ferrer will face Pablo Andujar in an all-Spanish semi-final after world number 66 minutes to beat Rafael Nadal's conquerer Fabio Fognini in straight sets.
Fognini stunned eight-time Barcelona Open champion Nadal with a third-round win on Thursday, but was dumped out himself a day later when he was beaten 6-1 6-3 in only 65 minutes.
Klizan earned his place in the last four at the expense of Tommy Robredo, who was beaten 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 by the 14th seed from Bratislava.
World number 28 Klizan has only faced Nishikori on one previous occasion and will be hoping history repeats itself, having defeated the 25-year-old in the first round of the French Open last year.
Klizan claimed the only break of the match against ninth seed Robredo in the third game of the second set and saw out the contest in impressive fashion, serving to love.