Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-4 7-5 on Friday to reach the semi-finals of the Open 13 tennis tournament in Marseille.
The top-seeded Frenchman will next face Juan Martin Del Potro, who edged Richard Gasquet 7-5 7-6 (5).
Tsonga served 14 aces and saved 10 break points in an all-French match.
Tsonga dropped serve in the opening game but broke back in the sixth.
He hit 18 winners to 11 for Roger-Vasselin to take the first set when his opponent netted a forehand volley.
Roger-Vasselin double-faulted at 6-5 in the next set to give Tsonga two match points.
Tsonga converted the first on a forehand error from Roger-Vasselin.
“I didn’t play better than him today,” said Tsonga, the 2009 champion.
“But I was stronger in my head in the key moments.”
Del Potro served 15 aces in a tight match where he won just one more point than Gasquet – 78 to 77.
The fourth-seeded Argentine led 3-1 in the last set but Gasquet, a former top-10 player, broke back in the eighth game.
Del Potro then saved a set point at 6-5 to force a tiebreaker before clinching victory with a diving backhand volley.
The 2009 US Open champion whipped a forehand winner to take the first set.
He saved two set points at 5-4 with a forehand winner and an ace.
Tsonga was the player with the most aces on the ATP Tour last season, although France has found another hard-serving player in 20-year-old Albano Olivetti.
Olivetti lost to Michael Llodra 7-6 (5) 7-5 in another all-French quarter-final, but has still left an impression on the home crowd after beating Mardy Fish on Thursday.
The 2.03-metre Olivetti hit a serve of 254 km/h last year on the Challenger Tour.
Ivo Karlovic of Croatia still holds the world record for the fastest serve with 251 km/h as only performances on the ATP tour are taken into account for official records.
However, Llodra outslugged Olivetti with 14 aces to 13 on Friday, and did not face a break point.
“Michael served smartly,” Olivetti said.
“He used very well the slice when serving to my backhand. He was also stronger than me on service returns.”
The 388th-ranked Olivetti double-faulted twice in the tiebreaker and Llodra won the first set when Olivetti sent a backhand into the net.