Ljubicic last seed to fall in Lyon

Fifth seed Ivan Ljubicic tumbled out of the Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon on Friday following defeat to Alejandro Falla in the quarter-finals.

The Croatian, who was the last remaining seed at the event, battled hard but was unable to stave off a 7-5 6-7 (3/7) 7-5 defeat.

In a tournament with no shortage of upsets, Falla is the only non-French player in the last four and has reached the first semi-final of his career.

The 23-year-old Colombian is best remembered for his opening round upset of Nikolay Davydenko at Wimbledon last year.

The victory over the Russian, ranked sixth in the world at the time, was his first career win over a top-10 player.

Falla will be aiming for his first ATP final appearance when he takes on Marc Gicquel, one of several Frenchmen enjoying success in their home tournament.

Gicquel moved into the semi-finals with a 7-5 6-3 triumph against Diego Hartfield of Argentina.

Like Falla, Gicquel has not exactly been a household name on the ATP Tour but he has definitely made his presence known at this event during the past two years.

The 30-year-old was runner-up to Richard Gasquet in 2006 and has nine wins from 11 games here in his career, including a first-round victory against second seed Tommy Robredo.

He now finds himself two wins away from his first career title.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who upset fellow Frenchman and defending champion Gasquet on Thursday, also reached the first semi-final of his career after defeating Olivier Rochus of Belgium 6-3 6-2.

Tsonga, 22, will face Sebastien Grosjean in an all-French semi-final on Saturday. Grosjean was a 6-7 (6/8) 6-2 7-6 (7/4) winner over Julien Benneteau.

The 29-year-old, attempting to reach his first final since 2005, has not won on Tour since St Petersburg in 2002.