"He's a very aggressive player and I'm very happy with my performance today," said the Frenchman (25 years old and 69th at ATP) after the match.
"I have made a lot of progress and I can still do better," added the man who was until now a specialist in Challenger circuit tournaments.
Close to the best ranking of his career (60th), the Nîmes, who lives in Marseille, had spent a round in January at the Australian Open and remained on a title at the Challenger of Cherbourg before arriving at the Open 13 .
Bonzi, who before beating Karatsev had dismissed Poland's Kamil Majchrzak and Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert in Marseille, underlined how important his service game at 4-3 in the second set was.
"It was a key moment. He pushed me to the limit and I knew I had to keep this break to be able to serve for the match with new balls," he explained.
But it was throughout the match that the Frenchman was extremely solid, notably with an almost perfect first set and completed in less than half an hour on three aces.
Benjamin Bonzi winner of Russian Aslan Karatsev at the Marseille Open 13, February 18, 2022 Nicolas TUCAT AFP
In the semi-finals, Bonzi will therefore face another Russian on Saturday, Andrey Rublev, 7th player in the world and seeded N.2 in Marseille.
French championships
The Marseille public almost witnessed a second surprise and a Franco-French semi-final, however, because Lucas Pouille very seriously worried Rublev before losing (6-3, 1-6, 6-2).
After a first set logically won by the recent semi-finalist in Rotterdam, Pouille clearly won the second round, confirming his beautiful improvement in Marseille.
While he had not recorded a single success on the main circuit for almost five months, the former world No.10 has indeed won two matches at the Open 13, against the Dutch Tallon Griekspoor and the Moldovan Radu Albot.
But these two fights in three sets may have weighed in the legs of Puglia.
While he had made the entry break in the deciding set and Rublev seemed distraught, the Frenchman stalled and lost six games in a row.
Russian Andrey Ruble, here at the Rotterdam tournament on February 12, 2022, is in the semi-finals in Marseille Sander Koning ANP / AFP / Archives
"I would like to win faster but it's not easy to play against Richard (Gasquet) and Lucas, who are playing at home. It's not easy to beat them and I still needed three sets", said the Russian, who had fallen Gasquet in the previous round.
"I'm happy to be in the semi-finals but it will still be against a Frenchman. I feel like I'm playing the French championships," he also joked.
The last two quarter-finals oppose this Friday the seeded N.1 Stefanos Tsitsipas to the Russian Roman Safiullin and the Canadian Félix Auger-Aliassime (seeded N.3) to the Belarusian Ilya Ivashka.
© 2022 AFP