Hometown favourite David Ferrer is closing in on a third Valencia Open title as he takes on Juan Monaco in Saturday's semi-finals.
Ferrer is a two-time Valencia champion and he's defending his title this week. The top seed continues to look like the favourite for the title as he put in a superb returning display to see off Nikolay Davydenko 6-3, 6-4 in the quarters.
"I began well and then later I had some trouble, but I was able to pull it out in the end," Ferrer said. "I feel good. I'm serving pretty well, but I still need to improve my game."
Monaco is not normally known for his prowess indoors but his quarter this week has been full of clay-court specialists and he's taken full advantage to reach his first semi-final of the season.
Monaco took out fourth seed Nicolas Almagro 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in the opening round and enjoyed a straightforward 6-3, 6-3 win over Juan Carlos Ferrero on Friday night.
However Ferrer will pose him very difficult challenges. The Spaniard's speed and depth of shot repeatedly hustled Davydenko into errors during their quarter-final and Monaco is likely to find it equally hard to penetrate Ferrer's defences, especially as he lacks a really huge serve.
Ferrer and Monaco are 3-3 on the head-to-head with Ferrer winning the last one 2-6, 7-5, 6-2 in Acapulco earlier this year.
