Australia's Bernard Tomic squandered five match points as he suffered a tight three-set defeat to French third seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the Marseille Open tennis quarter-finals.
Tsonga eventually prevailed 4-6 6-3 7-6 (12-10) and will play his first semi-final of 2013 when he meets French compatriot Gilles Simon for a place in the final.
Simon beat second-seeded Argentine Juan Martin del Potro, last weekend's Rotterdam champion, who needed treatment on a thigh injury, 6-4 6-3 in his quarter-final.
Earlier, Russian qualifier Dmitry Tursunov reached the last four with a 7-6 (9-7) 1-6 7-5 victory over Gilles Muller, the big-serving player from Luxembourg.
Tursunov will face top-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych, who beat Polish seventh seed Jerzy Janowicz 6-3 6-7 (0-7) 6-3 for a berth in the final.
