Flying South African

Wayne Ferreira will play his second semifinal at the Australian Open 11 years apart after an upset win over fourth seed Juan Carlos Ferrero late Tuesday.

The never-say-die South African downed the nine years' younger Spaniard to win 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (7/5) 6-1 in 2hr 11min and set up a semi-final with tournament favourite and second seed Andre Agassi on Thursday.

Eleven years ago Ferreira defeated John McEnroe to make the last four of the 1992 tournament.

The 31-year-old unseeded Ferreira gave the highly-rated Spaniard clay-courter a lesson in hardcourt play.

He staved off three set points at 4-5 in the second set to take the set to a tiebreaker which he claimed for a commanding two sets to love lead.

Dispirited Ferrero fell away dramatically in the final set as Ferreira surged home grabbing three service breaks.

It was Ferreira's first win over Ferrero in three matches, after losing his previous matches at the Paris Indoor in 1999 and the Tennis Masters Series in Rome two years ago.

Ferreira is playing in his 13th consecutive Australian Open and 50th Grand Slam tournament. It was Ferreira's sixth quarterfinal appearance at the Open.

Ferreira now has the chance to better his career-best Grand Slam performance at the Australian Open in 1992 when he defeated McEnroe in the quarter-finals before losing to Stefan Edberg in the semi-finals.

He reached the quarterfinal stage here last year before he retired with a groin injury at 5-2 in the first set against Marat Safin.

He is playing in his 49th consecutive Grand Slam, five behind Stefan Edberg's record of 54.

It was more hardcourt heartache for 22-year-old Ferrero, who had been impressive in his four leadup wins over Franco Squillari, Jean-Rene Lisnard, Fabrice Santoro and Mario Ancic.

But he repeatedly sprayed his favoured forehand around the court on Tuesday to give Ferreira the opportunity to post one of his more satisfying wins against one of the young lions of the men's circuit.

Ferrero had won 11 of his previous 13 matches since the season-ending Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai where he lost the final in five sets to world number one Lleyton Hewitt.

His best results are at the French Open on the red clay of Roland Garros, where he finished runnerup to compatriot Albert Costa in last year's final and semi-final appearances in his two other showings in 2000 and 2001.