David Ferrer and Jurgen Melzer are both aiming to reach the Monte Carlo final for the first time when they meet in Saturday's semi-finals.
Melzer enjoyed a fantastic clay-court campaign last year, reaching the French Open semi-finals and a return to the red dirt has seen a return to form for the Austrian. He produced one of the best performances of his career to defeat Roger Federer for the first time in the quarters, seeing off the world number three 6-4, 6-4 with a mixture of brute power and sublime touch around the net.
"I think I played a really good match without any mistakes. I tried to put the ball in the court and whenever I had a chance also be aggressive," Melzer said. "Especially on break points down, I think I played well, putting a lot of pressure on when I actually had the chance. That was the key I think to success today. You have to take your chances and you have to be aggressive, especially on big occasions. I did today."
Ferrer has been in the form of his life this year. A late bloomer, the 29 year old Spaniard has rarely hit the headlines but already has two titles to his name in 2011 and he will fancy his chances of making a first Monte Carlo final. He claimed his 100th Masters Series win with a 6-3, 6-3 quarter-final victory over Viktor Troicki and has not dropped a set so far this week, crushing Milos Raonic in round three.
The next match after a huge win is always tough. It's easy to feel flat after such a high adrenaline high and how Melzer deals with that will determine how much chance he has in this match. He knows what it takes to beat Ferrer on clay having stunned the Spaniard in straight sets in round three of last year's French Open. He also went on to beat him in the Paris Masters at the end of the year so will feel he has Ferrer's number.
However our gut prediction is that Melzer will not quite be able to reproduce the heights of his Federer performance. He also has a slight back injury, sustained a minor strain early on against Federer so all in all, look for Ferrer to progress in two.
