MELBOURNE, Australia -- Lucky ninth seed Marat Safin progressed to his first Australian Open semifinal after a stomach muscle strain forced unseeded South African Wayne Ferreira to pull out of their quarterfinal match Wednesday.

	Wayne Ferreira played four more games with a stomach muscle strain, but couldn't go on after that.

Ferreira injured himself during just the third game of the match on Melbourne Park's Rod Laver Arena against the Russian strongman and lasted only another four games.

"I feel sorry, but also I am very lucky we are not playing," Safin said after their truncated match.

"Today was a present I think," he said, adding he did not want to play on such a hot day with the temperature well above 86 degrees.

After beating 13-time Grand Slam winner Pete Sampras in a tough fourth-round match, Safin needed only 28 minutes before Ferreira retired, losing 5-2 in the first set.

"That was a great match. I deserved to win. Today was a present," Safin said. "I can save my energy for the semifinal."

Safin declined the favorite's role, saying he had a very difficult next round.

"If you feel a lot of confidence, it's a little dangerous," he said.

He next faces seventh-seeded Tommy Haas, who had a 7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-7 (2), 7-6 (5) quarterfinal win over former No. 1 Marcelo Rios.

Haas, the highest-ranked player remaining in the men's draw, produced aces to save break points three times.

"It was extremely tight but I was happy to win in four" sets, he said. "He had a lot of chances. I seemed to save them pretty well with my serves."

Rios, runnerup at Melbourne in 1998, wasted his opportunities, dropping his serve immediately after breaking the German on three occasions in the 3-hour, 17-minute match. He converted just three of 13 break-point chances.

Haas set up three match points with an ace to go up 6-3 in the last tiebreaker, and clinched it three points later when Rios dumped a backhand return in the net.

Rios hit more winners (61-60) and had fewer unforced errors (52-57) but failed when he had Haas in trouble.

"The problem was that I didn't win the most important points," Rios said. "If I had won the first set, it would have been a totally different match.

"After I won the third, he relied on his big serve ... when I had a break point, he used it very well."

Ferreira, who had struggled to five-set victories in his last two rounds, said he had pulled the muscle nine years ago and several times since, and had felt a twinge in the morning. He felt it pull again in the first game, and it gradually worsened.

"It's because I've played a lot of matches and done a lot of serving," he said.

"I like to go out fighting, that's why it's disappointing," Ferreira said, adding he had been force to pull out of French Open matches twice because of similar injuries.

Safin, the 2000 U.S. Open champion now will play either seventh seed Tommy Haas of Germany or talented former world No. 1 Marcelo Rios in the semifinals.

"I think for me it is great so I don't have to spend too much energy on the court ... I can save my energy for the semifinals," Safin said.

Ferreira, 30, called for treatment from a trainer immediately after dropping his serve in the third game.

He went back out onto court, but the injury clearly hampered Ferreira's movement and the South African dropped serve again to hand Safin a 5-2 lead.

He went back to his courtside chair and was unable to continue.

Ferreira reached the 1992 Australian Open semifinals, but had not reached a Grand Slam quarterfinal since Wimbledon in 1994.

He had survived two tough five-set matches in the previous two rounds, fighting back from two sets to love down to beat Croatian Ivan Ljubicic in the third round.

Safin said he was now feeling confident after beating Sampras in four tight sets Monday.

"I'm good, I'm feeling well, I'm confident, I'm in the semifinals...it's a big opportunity," Safin said.

"I would love to win this tournament," he said.

Information from The Associated Press and Reuters was used in this report.