The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Lyon

The Lyon ATP tournament has been dominated by home players this week as three French competitors qualified for today's semi-finals.

France's Marc Gicquel beat Diego Hartfield of Argentina 7-5, 6-3 to set up a loast four clash with Colombia's Alejandro Falla, a 7-5, 6-7 (3/7), 7-5 winner over Croatian fifth seed Ivan Ljubicic.

The other semi-final sees Jo-Wilfried Tsonga against Sebastien Grosjean, both of France. Tsonga beat Belgian Olivier Rochus 6-3, 6-2 and Sebastien Grosjean got the better of yet another Frenchman Julien Benneteau 7-6 (8/6), 2-6, 7-6 (7/4).

It has been an impressive week by Tsonga, ranked just 65th in the world, following his defeat of French number one Richard Gasquet on Thursday. Tsonga, putting his effective service to good use and full of confidence, was an easy victor of Rochus.

"I played well today with my serve going really well, but my return too," Tsonga said afterwards. "I played almost a perfect match and committed very few unforced errors.

"I have never played here at Lyon and it's new to me. I'm an outsider and I'm not yet among the best players and for me, each tournament is new."