Second seed Rafael Nadal beat title-holder Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-5, 7-5 on Friday, setting up a Paris Masters semi-final clash with third seed Novak Djokovic. Djokovic had earlier defeated Robin Soderling of Sweden 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 in the first of the day's quarterfinals to reach the last four in Paris for the first time.

Frenchman Tsonga was seeking to become the first man to successfully defend the prestigious Bercy title that traditionally brings down the curtain on the ATP regular season.

And he got off to a storming start in front of a packed Bercy Stadium by holding his serve to love and then procuring two break points on Nadal's following serve.

But he was unable to convert any of those as the gritty Nadal, who saved five match points against Nicolas Almagro in the third round on Wednesday and narrowly escaped against Tommy Robredo on Thursday, hung on to level.

Tsonga let slip three more break points in the sixth game and was made to pay the price five games later when a resurgent Nadal grabbed the first break of the match with a stinging forehand drive that the net-bound Tsonga volleyed long.

The Spaniard duly pocketed the set on his own serve.

The second set followed a near identical pattern to the first with Tsonga holding serve comfortably earlier on and Nadal having a harder time of it.

But once again in the 11th game, Tsonga's concentration wavered resulting in unforced errors that handed Nadal the break of serve he needed.

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