Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France Had to Work Hard to Beat Qualifier Ernests Gulbis of Latvia - - Advances to Semi Finals of China Open

TOKYO: Second seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France had to work hard to beat qualifier Ernests Gulbis of Latvia to reach the semi-finals of the Japan Open tennis tournament on Friday.

The 2008 Australian Open finalist, the highest remaining seeded player in the tournament, shrugged of a one-set deficit to score a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory over the 98th-ranked Latvian.

Earlier, Mikhail Youzhny of Russia eliminated defending champion Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic 6-2, 7-6 (8/6) to set up a semi-final meeting with 2001 champion Lleyton Hewitt of Australia.

Hewitt, seeded eighth, put an end to French qualifier Edouard Roger-Vasselin's excellent run with a 6-4, 6-0 victory.

In the last match of the day, fourth seed Gael Monfils of France defeated Beijing Olympic doubles gold medallist Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 to earn a place against Tsonga.

Gulbis, who eliminated sixth seed Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic on his way to the quarter-finals, hit a double fault on Tsonga's set point to tie the match at one-set all.

But he failed to secure a break opportunity in the final set, with Tsonga firing 19 aces, eight of them in the third set.

It was a shock defeat for Berdych, who furiously smashed his racket on the court before walking off.

Roger-Vasselin, who shocked US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina and Jurgen Melzer of Austria on his way to the quarter-finals, double-faulted on a break point to go down 1-2.

It was Hewitt's turn to hit a double fault on a break point in the sixth game, taking the game to 3-3.

Roger-Vasselin secured the following game, but he never got another break point chance as the Australian former world number one stepped up his serve and took the last nine games.