French players continued to dominate proceedings at the Thailand Open, with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils lining up a semi-final clash through Friday victories.

But 74th-ranked Nicolas Mahut failed to join the party, losing 7-6 (8-6), 6-3 to Czech third seed Tomas Berdych.

Top seed Novak Djokovic was attempting to put the last of the top four into the semis as he later faced dangerous Swedish sixth seed Robin Soderling holding a 2-0 lead in that series.,

Second seed Tsonga, this year's Australian Open finalist against Djokovic, showed devastating form in a 55-minute rout of Austrian Juegen Melzer 6-3, 6-2,

The Frenchman ranked 20th broke for 5-2 on a Melzer double-fault in the second set before serving out the victory to love. Along the way he struck 12 aces and committed just 11 unforced errors.

"I played some good tennis, much better than my previous match," said Tsonga. "It's great to reach another semi-final. It was really an easy match."

The fourth-seeded Monfils was equally solid as he beat German Philipp Petzschner 7-6 (8-6), 6-4.

Tsonga is lining up a re-run of the Australian Open final if he and Djokovic reach the Sunday title match.

Tsonga and Monfils have never played on the ATP, though Tsonga won a lower-level match with his compatriots five years ago at home.

"We are friends but we will treat each other like any other opponent," said Tsonga, who called the upcoming clash "a good show, a very good match."