After passing a barrage of 14 aces from Ivan Ljubicic, Novak Djokovic made a second set stand on the way to a 2-6, 6-4, 6-0 turnaround victory into the semifinals of the Barclays Championships.

Now, the Serbian second seed, who won the title a year ago, is two victories away from his dream of ultimately protecting the title in his career.

But Djokovic, in order initiate the reversal of fortunes, had to rally from the depths against his Croatian rival, saving break points in the seventh game of the second set.

Djokovic, who finished up with a break in the last game of the second set to level and swept away the third unhindered, said, "For a set and half, Ivan was the number two of the world, I couldn't do anything against him."

An improvement to 5-1 was achieved by Djokovic against the dangerous 2005 finalist. On Friday, he will play against Marcos Baghdatis, who defeated German Michael Berrer 7-6 (7-5), 6-1.

This season, during which sixth seed Marin Cilic won two titles already; fell to a rare loss as Jurgen Melzer upset the sixth seed 7-6 (10-8), 7-5 to leave the Croatian with a 17-2 record.

Melzer will play 2007 finalist Mikhail Youzhny after the Russian put out Janko Tipsarevic 6-3, 6-4 a day after the Serb defeated Andy Murray.