In the end it took the sublime skills of top seed Richard Gasquet to put out the aggressive big-hitting Teimuraz Gabashvili, a Russian who resmbles Marat Safin from a distance but with the comedic mannerisms of Henri Leconte, 6-7(6) 6-1 6-1 in a hard hitting match which started late under grey skies.

The first set was played under almost constant drizzle, but this did not spoil the high quality contest in any way as both men held serve valiantly throughout, backing up their big serves with even bigger ground strokes.

Although Gasquet started well in the tie-break with a mini-break at the very start with a backhand volley winner and went on to lead 4-2, Gabashvili rallied and eventually clinched the set on his second set point.

After such a closely contested opening set, Gasquet allowed his Russian opponent just two more games as he stamped his authority on the match, utilising his full arsenal of strokes to wear down the Russian whose accuracy and consistency from the back gradually went south.

An early break of the Gabashvili serve gave Gasquet 2-0 in the second set, and from there the Frenchman cruised to one set all with a further break donated with a double fault.

With the aid of a magnificent wrong-footing forehand drive volley winner, Gasquet broke Gabashvili at the start of the final set to love when the tiring Russian netted a backhand at the end of an exhausting baseline rally.

The Frenchman did not allow the Russian to hold serve again; his only blemish in an otherwise perfect set came when he conceded his own serve from 40-15 up at 3-0, and ended up flat on his posterior. Dirty shorts, but victory nevertheless firmly in the bag.

"It was disappointing to lose the tiebreak after missing two easy volleys", Gasquet said. "After that I tried to fight and I was lucky because I broke him at the beginning of the second set which was important for me. That gave me a lot of confidence and after that I played better and better."

Winning the last two sets so comfortably in the end came down to Gasquet improving his level and Gabashvili's dropping off sufficiently.

"I played better with my backhand, I served well. He played worst for sure; he lost a little bit of his confidence. I played two good sets to win and I'm happy I am in the semi-finals."

Looking ahead to his match with Carlos Moya, Gasquet said: "He has a good serve and good forehand; it will be exciting to play against him, a former No.1 and a good guy who plays really well. It's a semi-final and we both have to enjoy it. I will try and play well and try to beat Carlos."

Semi-final line up:

Richard Gasquet(1) v Carlos Moya(6)

Gilles Simon(2) v Jose Acasuso(4)

Andre Jones

BNR Arena

Bucharest