Corretja Too Good for Federer at French Open
He will play on Friday the winner of the tie between third seed Andre Agassi of the United States and Sebastien Grosjean of France, the 10th seed, for a place in the final.
Corretja, who lost in the final to compatriot Carlos Moya three years ago, has crafted his season around the Roland Garros showdown in a bid, at 27 years old, to finally win a grand slam event.
The 19-year-old Federer was the only unseeded player to reach the quarter-finals as he finally came to grips with the surface, but he had enjoyed a relatively easy draw to make it into the last eight.
The Swiss player had the best of the early exchanges on a cool, cloudy centre court as the players swapped service breaks in the seventh and eighth games of the opening set.
But as Corretja picked up the pace in the 12th game with his all-court game, Federer made a run of four unforced errors in five points to cede the set 5-7 in 50 minutes.
Both players had difficulty holding on to their serves in the second set with five breaks in six games, three going to Corretja who went two sets up when Federer netted a service return at 5-4 and 40-30 for the Spaniard.
Corretja had the game under control by this stage and he broke to lead 2-0 in the third set against an increasingly frustrated-looking Federer.
That looked to be enough to give Corretja the cushion, but after a five-minute rain break, Federer levelled at 5-5 with the Spaniard serving for the match, AFP said
It was but a brief respite for Federer, however, as Corretja broke him to go 6-5 up and then made no mistake this time on his own serve, blasting a backhand winner on his fourth match point.
Corretja was in his fourth consecutive French open quarter-final, having reached the final against Moya in 1998 and failing to make the semis in the last two years.
He got off to an uncertain start having to go all the way against Mariano Zabaleta of Argentina in the first round, but since then he has won 12 sets in succession.