Frenchman Lucas Pouille has earned his first grand slam semi-final appearance, downing Milos Raonic in their Australian Open quarter final.
The 28th seed will play world No.1 Novak Djokovic or Japan's Kei Nishikori on Friday night for a place in the final after defeating the booming Canadian 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 6-7 (2-7) 6-4 on Rod Laver Arena.
Pouille, who knocked young Australian Alexei Popyrin out in the third round, hadn't won a match prior to 2019 at Melbourne Park in five appearances.
He lost each match at the Hopman Cup.
He was dumped out of the Sydney International in the first round by world No.84 Andrey Rubrev.
And in three meetings with Raonic - who had sent world No.4 Alex Zverev, former winner Stan Wawrinka and Aussie ace Nick Kyrgios packing from Melbourne Park this fortnight - Pouille hadn't so much as won a set.
"There is a lot of first times this week," Pouille said after triumphing.
"I'm very happy, just very happy.
"I knew it would be a really tough match. I think I did really great on the return.
"We kept working hard even after all the matches I lost.
"I decided to take it step by step, give all I could every single point and here I am."
Pouille will now tune into Wednesday night's match to discover his semi-final opponent.
Whoever it is, Pouille will head into the meeting knowing it will take a hell of an effort to deny him a place in the final.
The 24-year-old was almost faultless in the opening two sets, making 30 winners for just nine unforced errors.
While his level dropped in the third-set tiebreak, Pouille snapped back into his rhythm in the fourth set.
The key to Pouille's resistance was his lethal returning, particularly on his backhand, as the Frenchman speared balls towards Raonic's feet with incredible consistency.
Raonic had a chance to hold serve and go to 5-5 in the fourth set when he let a Pouille effort fly past him at the net - only for it to drop a full metre inside the court.
Six points later, Pouille had broken the wold No.17 for a place in the last four.
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