Arnaud Clement shocked top seed and fellow Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 (10/8) on Friday to reach the semifinals of the Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon ATP event.
Clement recovered from dropping the opening set as he edged a tough three-hour encounter, saving a match point in the tiebreak in the decider to book a meeting with Croatian third seed Ivan Ljubicic.
Ljubicic saw off another Frenchman Florent Serra 7-6 (8/6), 6-2.
Second-seed Gilles Simon dug deep to oust Julien Benneteau, seeded fifth, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 in a battle of two more home favourites.
French wildcard Michael Llodra is also through after he came past compatriot Marc Gicquel 7-6 (7/5), 6-4.