LYON, France — Third-seeded Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia reached the semifinals of the Lyon Grand Prix on Friday by beating Florent Serra of France 7-6 (6), 6-2.

Ljubicic, the 2001 Lyon champion, served 16 aces and broke his opponent twice in the second set before closing out the win on his second match point.

The Croatian will play his first semifinal since May 2008 at Poertschach, Austria.

"It's a great feeling to get into my first semifinal of the year," said the 29th-ranked Ljubicic. "If I can finish the year in the top 20 that will be a really good year for me. I feel like I am getting back to where I belong with my ranking. I'm feeling good on the court again."

Serra saved four break points in the first set to force a tiebreaker, but Ljubicic — losing only four points on his first serve during the match — took a 3-0 lead and served his 10th ace before taking the set on his second set point.

Ljubicic, the only non-French player in the quarterfinals, extended his record against Serra to 4-0 and will face top-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga or Arnaud Clement in the next round.

Second-seeded Gilles Simon retained a slight chance of qualifying for next month's eight-man ATP World Tour Finals in London by beating Julien Benneteau 7-6 (5), 6-3. Currently 13th in the rankings, Simon can still claim one of the two spots up for grabs.

Tsonga is also in the race for the season finale in London, but can't add to his points this week in Lyon.

Simon's next opponent will be French wild card Michael Llodra, who edged doubles partner Marc Gicquel of France 7-6 (5), 6-4. Llodra broke twice and served his 13th ace on match point to reach Lyon's semifinals for the first time in eight appearances.