Gilles Muller of Luxembourg upset second-seeded Richard Gasquet of France 6-3, 6-4 on Friday to move into the semi-finals of the Moselle Open.
Muller next faces 2005 champion Ivan Ljubicic, who beat Dutch qualifier Igor Sijsling 6-4, 6-3.
Top-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also advanced to the last four by rallying past Nicolas Mahut 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 in an all-French encounter to next play third-seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine, who was leading 6-3, 1-0 when Xavier Malisse of Belgium retired.
Photo: EPA
The 49th-ranked Muller was at his shot-making best in the first set, hitting 19 winners to only five for Gasquet.
Muller cracked three aces in a row to win the opening set. In the second set, he broke at 1-1 and then saved five break points to clinch victory when Gasquet sent a backhand return long.
In the first quarter-final, Ljubicic fired 13 aces, including one on match point. The fourth-seeded Croatian took the first set on a double fault from Sijsling, who was playing his first quarter-final on the main tour.
Ljubicic then broke serve to lead 4-2 in the next set.
Tsonga put Mahut under pressure at 5-5 in the final set, hitting two return winners and a forehand volley to earn three break chances.
He converted the first with a half-volley that landed on the line to serve for the match. Tsonga sealed the win by slamming an ace clocked at 214kph.
NASTASE TIRIAC TROPHY
AP, BUCHAREST, ROMANIA
Top-seeded Juan Ignacio Chela advanced to the semi-finals of the Nastase Tiriac Trophy on Friday by beating seventh-seeded Andreas Seppi of Italy 7-5, 6-3.
Chela next faces fourth-seeded Pablo Andujar of Spain, who defeated qualifier Alessandro Giannessi of Italy 6-3, 6-4. Chela beat Andujar in last year’s Bucharest final.
Second-seeded Florian Mayer of Germany also reached the semi-finals and plays against Filippo Volandri of Italy.
Mayer defeated Albert Ramos of Spain, 6-1, 6-2, while Volandri beat Brazilian Joao Souza 6-2, 6-0.
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