Richard Gasquet stayed in the hunt for a third consecutive Open Sud de France title by beating Kenny de Schepper, while compatriots Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Benoit Paire are also through to the semi-finals in their homeland.

Gasquet has won the ATP 250 tournament in three of the last four years and moved a step closer to yet another success in Montpellier by seeing off another Frenchman in the form of De Schepper 6-2 5-7 6-4.

De Schepper saved as many as 17 break points and served 16 aces in a powerful performance, but the qualifier was unable to claim the scalp of the third seed.

Paire should be fresh for his last-four match against Gasquet after he played just one game of his quarter-final before Dustin Brown retired due to a back injury.

Second seed Tsonga needed just 67 minutes to march into the last four at the expense of Daniil Medvedev, who went down 6-2 7-5.

Tsonga will fancy his chances of claiming a first title since 2015 following an ominous display in which he did not face a solitary break point and will now face Alexander Zverev, who ensured there will be one non-French player in the semi-finals by ousting Jeremy Chardy.

Grigor Dimitrov maintained his impressive start to the season by beating birthday boy Viktor Troicki 6-3 6-3 to reach the semi-finals of the Sofia Open.

Dimitrov won the Brisbane International before reaching the semi-finals of the Australian Open and will now face Nikoloz Basilashvili on home soil after the Georgian recovered from a poor start to defeat Martin Klizan 0-6 6-3 6-3.

David Goffin won an all-Belgian clash with Steve Darcis 6-1 6-3 to set up a meeting with Roberto Bautista Agut, who beat Gilles Muller in straight sets.