Australian Open winner Stanislas Wawrinka reached the semi-finals of the Monte Carlo Masters on Friday with a 7-6 (7-5) 6-2 victory over Canadian Milos Raonic.

Wawrinka, who had a walkover in the previous round when Spain’s Nicolas Almagro pulled out with a foot injury, will wait for a weekend opponent as eight-time champion Rafael Nadal faces compatriot and good friend David Ferrer, seeded sixth.

Wawrinka, who has dragged himself out of a short slump after beating Nadal for the grand slam title in Melbourne three months ago, took control as eighth seed Raonic twice lost leads in the opening set tiebreaker.

The mistakes gave an opening to Wawrinka, who took the first set on his initial opportunity and then broke to start the second as the frustrated Raonic let go of a 40-15 lead in the first game.

From that point, momentum shifted to the Swiss world No.3, who broke the Canadian again for 5-2 before serving out the match in 90 minutes.

Wawrinka finished with 30 winners and 28 unforced errors and never faced a break point. The Swiss was playing his third consecutive quarter-final at the event which marks the start of the European clay season and the run-up to Roland Garros which begins on May 25.

He stands at 3-0 over Raonic, who was playing his first claycourt quarter-final at the Masters 1000 level.

Wawrinka duplicated his 2009 result by reaching the semi-finals and improving his season record to 18-3.

On the other side of the draw, defending champion Novak Djokovic and fourth-seeded Roger Federer might end up in a semi-final showdown.

Djokovic will face Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the last eight after the Spaniard’s three-set win over fifth seed Tomas Berdych, while Federer will meet ninth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.