New York - Spain's Marcel Granollers, ranked 124th in the world, breezed past top-seeded Adrian Mannarino of France 6-3, 6-1 on Friday to reach the semi-finals of the ATP grass court tournament in Newport, Rhode Island.
Granollers needed just 62 minutes to deny 26th-ranked Mannarino a third semi-final of the season.
He'll next face third-seeded American Steve Johnson, who made similarly short work of Israel's Dudi Sela 6-2, 6-3.
Johnson's 11 aces more than compensated for five double faults and he saved both break points he faced in the 58-minute contest.
Granollers has won four ATP singles titles and 13 doubles titles and was once ranked in the top 20. But his inconsistency in recent years has sent him to the Challenger circuit to try to rebuild his ranking and he is playing in his first Tour-level main draw this week since Barcelona in April.
His victory followed the upset trend in Newport, where Mannarino and Johnson were the only seeded players to reach the last eight.
The first two semi-finalists were decided on Thursday, when India's Ramkumar Ramanathan and American Tim Smyczek advanced.