NOTTINGHAM, England - Defending champion Richard Gasquet of France beat countryman Gilles Simon 6-3, 6-1 Thursday to advance to the semifinals of the Red Letter Days Open.
Gasquet breezed past Simon in 68 minutes at the grass-court Wimbledon warmup.
He will face Robin Soderling, who beat Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia 7-6 (4), 6-4. Andreas Seppi of Italy advanced with a 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-1 win over wild card Andrew Murray of Scotland.
Seppi will face Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden, who defeated Feliciano Lopez of Spain 6-3, 6-4.
Gasquet lost his opening service, but broke Simon's serve twice and won four straight points.
He broke Simon in the third game of the second set.
Seppi had a tougher time with Murray, with both players breaking serve three times in the first set. Seppi broke from 6-5 down and went on to win the tiebreaker.