Rafa Nadalkept his Pacific Life Open title defense on track Thursday with a 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 quarter-final victory over American James Blake.

Rafa, the second seed, earned his first victory over Blake in four career meetings. He booked a semi-final showdown with Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic, who defeated 35th ranked Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka 7-6 (7/5), 6-2.

Rafa beat Djokovic in the final of this 5.7 million-dollar WTA and ATP Masters Series tournament last year. Rafa had been thwarted by Blake in all three of their previous meetings, the last at the Tennis Masters Cup in 2006, when he dropped a second-set tiebreaker 7-0. This time around, Rafa earned the lone break of the third set in the eighth game to take 5-3 lead, pouncing remorselessly on Blake's second serves.

"I thought if I have the chance with the second serve in that game, I was going to play aggressive," Rafa said. "I was going to try to do the winner with the forehand."

Rafa served out the match to love, firing his sixth ace of the contest on match point and dropping to his knees in celebration. He said his reaction reflected the cumulative emotion of the win over James, and his narrow fourth-round victory over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Rafa trailed 2-5 in the third set in that match on Wednesday and held on for the victory. "The thing is not beating James, the thing is being in the semi-finals and beating two big players like Tsonga and Blake," Rafa said.

"For me, it was two very important matches." Rafa said he knew Blake would display his characteristic aggressive style, and sure enough the American used it to control the second set. Blake broke in the second game and never surrendered the advantage, but Rafa said he never felt the momentum had swung too far from him.

The pair had traded breaks in the first set before Rafa seized the decisive break in the 11th game for a 6-5 lead.

Rafa fended off three break points in the next game to pocket the set. "I figured it was going to come down to who's going to play a couple of big points better," Blake said. "I didn't do enough to hurt him on the big points".