Rainer Schuettler reached his first-ever Grand Slam semi-final after a comprehensive four-set victory over Wimbledon finalist David Nalbandian.

The German 31st seed at Melbourne Park, triumphed 6-3 5-7 6-1 6-0 over the Argentine 10th seed.

His only blip came in the second set which he lost after leading 4-3, gifting his opponent the set with his fifth double fault.

But from then on it was all one-way traffic.

Nalbandian struggled badly and Schuettler repeatedly ran down balls to hit winners in a match which failed to thrill the crowd at the Rod Laver Arena.

Schuettler, who led the German challenge in the absence of Tommy Haas and Nicolas Kiefer, is only the fifth German to reach the semi-finals since 1968.

Maybe I am lucky to be in the semis Rainer Schuettler

He received a walkover in the third round after Marat Safin retired injured and also beat former Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek and American James Blake to reach this stage.

He will now play either number nine seed Andy Roddick or Moroccan Younes El Aynaoui, the 18th seed, in the last four.

"Maybe I am lucky to be in the semis," admitted Schuettler. "Maybe I was lucky in the third round, but there is no pressure for me.

"I'm just happy to be here and I will just keep going."