Qualifier Ricardas Berankis continued his run of impressive form with a straight-sets win over Frenchman Nicolas Mahut to reach his first ATP World Tour semi-final in Los Angeles.
Berankis won 6-4 6-4 in the Farmers Classic quarter-final with fourth seed Mahut, the 22-year-old saving all three break points he faced on serve and breaking Mahut once in each set.
After recovering from a stress fracture to his pelvis, Lithuanian Berankis contested his first Tour-level event in nearly a year last week as a qualifier in Atlanta, the former junior world number one recording his first match win since March 2011.
Berankis will next play Australian Marinko Matosevic, who was a 6-2 6-3 winner over American Michael Russell, who struggled with a back problem which later forced him out of the doubles.
On the other side of the draw, pre-tournament favourite and two-time former champion Sam Querrey defeated fifth seed Xavier Malisse after the Belgian retired with a knee injury when trailing 6-2 3-1.
Querrey will next face fellow American Rajeev Ram. He defeated Argentinian third seed Leonardo Mayer 7-6 (7/3) 6-3.
