World No. 3 Novak Djokovic passed his quarterfinal test against Swiss No. 2 Stanislas Wawrinka on Thursday afternoon at the Pacific Life Open, prevailing 7-6(5), 6-2 to set up a rematch of last year’s Indian Wells with defending champion Rafael Nadal. The World No. 2 defeated American James Blake 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 in the evening session. More

Both Djokovic and Wawrinka struggled with their service games in the first set, each broken three times as the lead seesawed between the Serb and Swiss. Wawrinka built a 3-1 lead, Djokovic won four straight games to earn a chance to serve out the set at 5-3, Wawrinka countered by winning the next two games, then dropped serve to send the match to a tie-break.

Wawrinka was forced to play catch-up in the tie-break after falling behind 3-0 and managed to draw even at five points piece, but Djokovic took the mini-break and then won a spectacular rally that ended with the Swiss rifling his forehand return wide.

Djokovic, who accordingly fell to his knees and pounded his chest in celebration, said: “As you could see by the reaction, it was probably the most important point of the game.”

The 20-year-old broke Wawrinka twice in the second set and dropped just one point on serve to secure his place in the semifinals. Djokovic, who last year reached the Indian Wells final without the loss of a set, has also won his four matches this past week in straight sets.

“It's normal to have some difficult stages in the tournament and sets and matches,” said Djokovic. “This was the one. This was really a test for me. I'm happy to win such a difficult match. We played over two hours only two sets; the time [shows] that we had such long rallies. But in the end I won, and that's what matters.”

Wawrinka pointed to Djokovic’s mental strength as the differentiating factor: “When you play the important points, he knows exactly how to play and he does it well.”

The 22-year-old Wawrinka had reached his first career ATP Masters Series quarterfinal by virtue of three-set wins over American wild card Jesse Levine, No. 10 seed Tomas Berdych, No. 18 seed Marcos Baghdatis and unseeded Korean Hyung-Taik Lee.

“I take a lot of positive things from the match,” he said. “I was close to winning the first set, and then I was playing very well. So I'm happy with my game and with this tournament.”