Defending champion David Ferrer has held off a match point and won the last four games to beat Serbia’s Viktor Troicki 6-3 3-6 7-5 at the ATP event in Vienna.

The 19th-ranked Spaniard will play top-seeded Andy Murray or John Isner for a place in Sunday’s final, while former champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will take on eighth-seeded Ivo Karlovic in the other semi-final.

Ferrer and Troicki had one service break each on Friday as they shared the first two sets.

Troicki missed a match point on Ferrer’s serve at 5-3 in the third and didn’t win another game.

“There were a lot of rallies. It was a good match,” said Ferrer, who complained about muscle cramps in his left leg.

“Viktor played some very good tennis in the first two sets. On the important points I was a bit more aggressive and lucky.”

Ferrer has played at least one final in each of the past 11 seasons, but has yet to reach one this year.

Earlier, Tsonga defeated Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain 6-2 7-6 (7-5) for his third semi-final appearance of the season.

The 15th-ranked Frenchman lost the previous two, in Auckland and Monte Carlo.

Sixth-seeded Tsonga, who won the event in 2011, failed to score a point while serving at 5-1 but broke again to close out the first set, and converted his third match point in the second-set tiebreaker.

The 21st-ranked Karlovic used one of his 29 aces to save a match point before beating Karen Khachanov of Russia 6-7 (7-5) 7-6 (7-5) 6-3.

Karlovic, who won titles in Newport and Los Cabos, advanced to his sixth semi-final of the season.