After having already defeated Richard Gasquet and Lucas Pouille in the two previous rounds, Rublev, seeded N.2, therefore brought down a third Frenchman in a row.
But while he had never played in a quarter-final on the main circuit, Bonzi will necessarily be satisfied with his week in Marseille.
Sunday in the final, the 14th already of his career, Rublev (24) will try to win a ninth title against the Canadian Félix Auger-Aliassime, seeded N.3, or the surprise Russian Roman Safiullin, 163rd in the world and from qualifications.
"It's been very tough. Benjamin is playing really well, he won a Challenger last week, he beat some really good players here. It's been really tough and I'm very happy to be in the final," Rublev said. after the game.
"Every week of the tournament I would like to go to the final but that's not always possible. Here I was very motivated and it will be my first final of the season. I'm very happy," he added.
Semi-finalist last week in Rotterdam, Rublev lost to Auger-Aliassime, whom he could therefore find in the final in Marseille on Sunday.
For his part, Bonzi therefore failed to beat his first Top 10 after having dominated his first player in the Top 50 on Friday by clearly beating the Russian Aslan Karatsev, 15th in the world.
But he hampered Rublev a lot and confirmed that he was in a great period after his success last week at the Challenger de Cherbourg.
Frenchman Benjamin Bonzi in his semi-final of the Marseille tournament against Russian Andrey Rublev, February 19, 2022 Nicolas TUCAT AFP
In the first set, the Frenchman (25 years old and 69th in the world) was in too much trouble on his serve (three breaks suffered) to be able to compete.
More solid in the second set, the one who has lived in Marseille for two years, took Rublev's service at 3-3 before remaining very calm at the end of the set to conclude 6-4.
But in the third set, he conceded an entry break on a game without first balls and failed to come back, despite a break point in the last game.
© 2022 AFP