Ljubicic, Llodra victorious in Lyon semifinals

LYON, France (AP)—Ivan Ljubicic defeated Arnaud Clement 6-2, 6-4 Saturday to reach the final of the Lyon Grand Prix, where he’ll play wild card Michael Llodra.

Ljubicic, seeded third and the 2001 Lyon champion, didn’t face a break point and won on his first match point when the Frenchman sent a forehand wide.

“My serve was not as good as the other days, but I felt pretty good on court,” said Ljubicic, who has dropped his serve only once this week. “For me it was the perfect match.”

Llodra beat fellow Frenchman and second-seeded Gilles Simon 6-7 (4), 6-3, 7-6 (1).

Ljubicic, who won the first of his eight ATP titles in Lyon in 2001, will play his first final since February 2008 in Zagreb. His last title came in June 2007.

“I’ve been playing really good tennis recently and I hope I can continue like this until the end of the season,” Ljubicic said.

Clement, who won the title in Lyon in 2000, looked tired after playing nearly three hours in Friday’s quarterfinal win over top-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

“He was far better than me,” Clement said. “The score reflects the reality of this match. He played very well and I made more mistakes than yesterday.”

Llodra extended his perfect record against Simon to 4-0 and guaranteed a Frenchman in the final for the fifth consecutive year.

Simon, who has a slight chance of qualifying for next month’s eight-man ATP World Tour Finals in London, is scheduled to play in Valencia, Spain, and Paris with the hope of scoring enough points to claim one of the two spots still up for grabs.