Julien Benneteau has been a professional tennis player for over a decade. He played (and won) his first-ever ATP match in Lyon in 2001, at the age of 19. Since then, Benneteau has made himself into a solid player and has stayed around the top 50 since his real breakthrough in 2006. He has no huge weapons on court, but he defends well, plays with good depth, and makes smart approaches into the net, where he plays very solidly.

Benneteau is known for two things among the more knowledgeable tennis fans. The first is a brilliant match he played against Federer in the third round of Wimbledon 2012. He won the first two sets with an incredible display of tennis and came closer that anyone else did to beating Federer at Wimbledon that year. He lost a fourth-set tiebreak and seemed injured in the fifth set, but it was probably the best match of his career.

Benneteau’s other famous statistic is both less distinguished and even unhappier to think about. He has never won a Tour-level title in singles. (He does have 10 titles in doubles). He has won three Challenger titles, including one a few months ago, so his singles trophy case isn’t completely empty. Still, for a player who has been ranked as high as he has for so long, the lack of a championship is glaring.

Then again, that should do nothing to detract from a solid career. Benneteau is an extreme overachiever. As mentioned, he does not have the massive weapons that most other top-50 players have. He wins his matches by playing consistent, solid shots. He does very well to keep balls deep but avoid errors, making it difficult to hit winners past him. His best weapon, without question, is his net play. He can approach off both wings and volleys well once at the net. It is no surprise that, with how he plays, he has never really threatened to win a Masters 1000 tournament or a major. What is surprising is that, even with his consistency, he has never managed to win even an ATP 250. Over the past 15 years he has earned over $5 million in singles prize money, but none of that came from winning one event.

That is why this week has been an absolute dream come true for Benneteau. He has reached the semifinal of a Masters 1000 tournament for the first time in his career.  He is 32 years old and competing in his 67th Masters event. He has only reached a quarterfinal at this level two other times, earlier this year at Indian Wells and here in Cincinnati in 2009. Benneteau could also get even farther here, for he faces either David Ferrer or Tommy Robredo next, both of which are winnable matchups for him on this fast, high-bouncing surface.

Benneteau has come a long way in just this past week. He faced a match point on Tuesday night against Blaz Rola in front of a huge pro-Rola crowd on Court 9. (Rola is a former Ohio State player.) He survived that third-set tiebreak and followed it up with wins against James Ward and Jerzy Janowicz that were impressive in how easy they were. The pattern in both matches was the same as well. Benneteau forced shot after shot from awkward positions and let his opponents hit themselves out of matches. His serve has also been very solid. He has not hit many aces or unreturned serves, but his serve always seems to set up points very well for him.

Today, against World No. 4 Stanislas Wawrinka, Benneteau had the same game plan as always. It did not seem to work out so well in the early stages, when Wawrinka was content to hit big shot after big shot from the back of the court, blowing away Benneteau’s defense. Benneteau knew that the something had to change after the opening set.

He said, “At the end of the first set I talked to myself and said if I don't change anything I’m going to lose it. So I said that I need to play harder from the baseline and to put a little bit more intensity in my strokes.” He summed up what he did in the match very well. 

After that first set, Wawrinka grew tired and lost his rhythm. Points that were ending in winners became poor errors, and Wawrinka’s usually lethal backhand struggled to find the court. What looked to be a rout in favor of the Swiss suddenly became the exact opposite. Benneteau’s tougher play finally broke down Wawrinka, and the Frenchman raced to the finish line.

But Benneteau is not going to be satisfied with just this result. He knows that a semifinal here is the best effort of his career, but he also knows that he is still title-less in singles. He is hungry for more and isn’t afraid to say it. He finished, “So of course it means something. But the tournament is not done, and I still have a lot to do. We will see.”

We will indeed.