Top seed Roger Federer has progressed to the semifinals of the Dubai Tennis Championships with a straight-sets win over Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky.
The Swiss world No. 2 won 6-3 6-4 and will on Friday play Richard Gasquet, who beat fellow Frenchman Gilles Simon 5-7 6-2 6-4 in the closing last-eight tie.
Federer is seeking his fifth victory in the Emirate, having won the title three years in a row from 2003.
"At the end of the day, you want to give yourself chances to win the trophy, and that's what I'm doing," he told the ATP website on Thursday.
"I think I didn't have any completely easy matches here. I've always had to be very focused."
In the other half of the draw, world No. 3 Novak Djokovic remained on course for a third successive title in Dubai after coming from behind to beat Germany's Florian Mayer.
The Serbian second seed trailed 38-ranked Mayer 3-5 in the opening set of their quarterfinal, before going on to win 10 out of the next 11 games to wrap up a 7-5 6-1 victory and book a semifinal against Czech third seed Tomas Berdych.
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"It was a very slow start, I was making lots of unforced errors. But when I needed to play well and needed to keep the ball in the court I did," the 23-year-old said.
It is the second match in a row that the Australian Open champion has been forced to work hard for a win, after he was pushed to three sets by Spain's Feliciano Lopez in their fourth-round encounter.
World No. 7 Berdych defeated Germany's Philipp Petzschner in straight sets, saving six break-points on his way to a 7-5 6-4 win.
The 2010 Wimbledon runner-up is yet to drop a set at this week's hard-court tournament.
At the WTA hard-court event in Doha, newly-crowned women's No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki continued her good run of form with an impressive 6-2 6-0 quarterfinal win over Italy's Flavia Pennetta in the Qatar Ladies' Open on Thursday.
The 20-year-old Dane, who won 12 consecutive games after dropping the first two, will play Marion Bartoli of France for a place in the final. France's former Wimbledon finalist eased past China's Peng Shuai 6-2 6-2.
Russian second seed Vera Zvonareva battled into the last four with a 7-5 6-7 (5-7) 7-5 win over Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova.
Zvonareva, runner-up in 2008 when the event was last held, will next face Serbian fifth seed Jelena Jankovic -- who won 6-2 6-4 against Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic, a "lucky loser" entrant into the main draw.
Meanwhile, world No. 11 Mikhail Youzhny -- a semifinalist at last week's ATP Marseille Open -- has announced his retirement from Russia's Davis Cup team.
The 28-year-old Youzhny, who was part of the Russian team who beat France to win the men's team competition in 2002, said it was time for the country's younger players to take over.
Former world No. 3 Nikolay Davydenko has also made himself unavailable for Russia's World Group tie against Sweden on March 4-6, and the team will instead be led by 76th-ranked Teimuraz Gabashvili.
