Second seed and crowd favourite Lleyton Hewitt crashed out in the quarter-finals of the Kingfisher Airlines Open while France's Richard Gasquet set up a semi-final clash with Fabrice Santoro, one of his childhood heroes, on Friday.
Wildcard entrant and one of the title contenders Nicolas Kiefer also bowed out of the tournament after suffering a stomach upset. The German was trailing Belgium's Olivier Rochus 1-4 when he conceded the quarter-final match.
Veteran German Rainer Schuettler, ranked 143, came back from a break down in the second set to beat Hewitt 6-3, 7-5.
"There was a difference in energy levels," admitted Hewitt, who was playing his third match in two days. "I felt a little flat out there. I had played two matches yesterday; playing four sets in these conditions is not easy."
The 33-year-old Santoro also did not let the heat and humidity get to him as he ousted fourth seed Jarkko Nieminen of Finland 6-3, 6-4 in an hour and 21 minutes.
"I have never sweated so much in my life," said a relieved Santoro, even as he soaked in the roaring applause from the audience.
With his unique style of play, the Frenchman did not let Nieminen settle into any kind of rhythm to extend his head-to-head record to 3-0.
Top seed Gasquet continued his top-form to march into the final four with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Austria's Stefan Koubek.
Gasquet kept his promise on the eve of the match to send Koubek out in the quarter-final of the tournament, dropping only 16 points on his serve.
"When we saw the draw we said it would be pretty great to play in the semi-final," said Santoro, before adding. "He's 21 and I'm only a little bit older."
Schuettler, 31, had a tough three-setter in the second round and seemed better prepared for the conditions in Mumbai. Hewitt had come into the tournament having just recovered from a viral infection and had played a qualifier and a temperamental Serbian, Boris Pashanski, to complete his preparation.
For the first time he faced a man who matched his fight and ground strokes, Hewitt was caught off-guard. Though the crowd tried to carry their hero past the tough hurdle, Schuettler's tenacity proved too much to handle.
Hewitt started by breaking Schuettler in the first game, but was quickly two break points down on his own serve. The German could not make most of his chances in the second game but went on to win the next five games as Hewitt struggled to get the first serves in.
"I served poorly and he returned pretty well," said Hewitt.
"There were a lot of momentum swings in the match. He played great at times and played pretty average at time. If I had been able to win the second set it could've been a different story.
In the second set, again the former world number one was 5-3 up and looked like stretching the match into the third set. Schuettler, not giving Hewitt any free points, kept gnawing deeper into the Australian's court till be took four straight games and win the match.
Semi-final line-up: (1) Richard Gasquet vs (5) Fabrice Santoro; (8) Olivier Rochus vs Rainer Schuettler.
