Defending champion Rafael Nadal [Images] held his nerve to reach the last four at the Pacific Life Open by beating American James Blake 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 in the quarter-finals on Thursday.

The second-seeded Spaniard broke the American in the eighth game of the third set before serving out to seal victory in a contest lasting just over two hours.

Nadal won an opening set littered with unforced errors on both sides of the net before ninth-seeded Blake levelled the match after breaking the left-hander in the second game of the second.

• Images: Pacific Life Open 2008

World number two Nadal, who beat Blake for the first time in four career meetings, next meets Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic who defeated Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka 7-6 6-2 earlier in the day.

(Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes; Editing by Ed Osmond)