Japan’s Kei Nishikori also advanced with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Alexandr Dolgopolov, the 12th seed from Ukraine.

With his surprising run this week, which included a win over fourth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Nishikori will become the highest-ranked Japanese player in ATP tour history. Currently ranked 47th, he’s projected to rise to 32 with his quarterfinal win—beating Shuzo Matsuoka’s previous best ranking of 46.

Felicano Lopez beat 15th-seeded Florian Mayer of Germany 6-2, 6-4, in just over an hour to set up an all-Spanish semifinal clash with Ferrer. Mayer had ousted Rafael Nadal in straight sets on Thursday.

The third-seeded Ferrer committed a string of errors to drop the first-set tiebreaker in his match, but he cleaned up his game in the second set, striking winners off the forehand and backhand side to break Roddick twice.

The 10th-seeded American had an opportunity to go up early in the third, but he wasted three break points on Ferrer’s first service game—and never challenged the Spaniard’s serve again.

Ferrer finished with 49 winners—twice as many as Roddick. Both players had 11 aces.

 “I thought the second and third sets he played at an extremely high level and served pretty well,” Roddick said. “You know, you normally don’t count on him making a lot of first serves, hitting aces. I felt like today he did that and got himself out of trouble a couple of times.”

Ferrer was nearly out of the tournament in the last round—he had to fight off three match points against countryman Juan Carlos Ferrero before finally winning in three sets. With that win, he became the fifth player to qualify for the ATP World Tour Finals in London next month.

Ferrer has gone deep in Masters-level tournaments many times, but he’s yet to win one. With Nadal’s loss—and Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer both skipping the tournament—Ferrer’s chances for a breakthrough in Shanghai have improved considerably.

The 21-year-old Nishikori, who is coached by former top-10 player Brad Gilbert, is having his best season on tour, reaching one final and four semifinals. He has won more matches this year (32) than in the previous four years combined.

Nishikori, who roomed with Gilbert’s son Zachary at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida, said the coach’s instruction has been key to improving his game.

 “He knows a lot of players. He teaches me, you know, how the top players play, how I need to play,” he said. “So it is helping me a lot, I think.”

Nishikori’s next opponent could be Andy Murray, who was also once coached by Gilbert. The second-seeded Scot faces Australia’s Matthew Ebden, a qualifier ranked No. 124, in Friday’s last quarterfinal.