Defending champion Rafael Nadal will go head-to-head with Gaston Gaudio for a spot in the final after both picked up quick victories Friday at Masters Series Monte-Carlo, presented by Rolex.
Nadal made quick work of his 2005 final opponent Guillermo Coria, who fought his way into the semifinals after marathon matches the previous two days. Nadal, who remains the only player who has yet to drop a set this week, dismissed the Argentine 6-2, 6-1. Coria narrowly escaped the bagel in the second set when he succeeded in breaking Nadal in the second to last game of the match.
The 19-year-old Spaniard takes a 40 match winning streak on clay courts into his semifinal clash with Gaudio. Gaudio leads the career series 3-2, but Nadal has claimed the last two meetings - in the 2005 Monte-Carlo quarterfinals and in the 2005 Stuttgart final.
Gaudio confidently booked his spot in the semifinals as he began Center Court action on Friday with a 6-1, 6-3 over Spain's Tommy Robredo.
The seventh-seeded Argentine held serve throughout the 78-minute match while breaking Robredo four times to advance to the Monte-Carlo semifinals for the second time in his career. In his previous outing against Dominik Hrbaty in 2000, he conceded a first-set lead to lose 6-4, 5-7, 2-6.
Gaudio, who picked up his 15th career win in Monte-Carlo with Friday's victory, will be appearing in his second semifinal of 2006 - also his second on clay. In Acapulco, he lost to eventual champion Luis Horna in three sets.
First-time Monte-Carlo quarterfinalist Robredo, the No. 15 seed, upset World No. 3 David Nalbandian in a three-set battle Thursday. The Spaniard also lost in his last meeting against Gaudio at the 2006 Western & Southern Financial Group Masters in Cincinnati.
In the third quarterfinal of the day, Roger Federer delighted the fans en route to his 6-1, 6-3 victory over David Ferrer and advanced reached the semifinals of this event for the first time in his career. The Swiss jumped to a great start by breaking Ferrer's serve in the first game of the match.
The Spaniard won his first game at 0-4, but the Swiss broke again at 5-1 to clinch the first set. In the second set, Federer continued his dominance to take a 4-0 lead, but the Spaniard didn't give up and had two break opportunities to level the set at 4-4. Federer held his serve and broke in the next to close out the victory.
With the win, the Swiss improves to 32-1 (only loss to Nadal in Dubai final) and has now reached the semifinal or better a eight of nine (except Paris) ATP Masters Series tournaments.
Federer will now play Fernando Gonzalez, who defeated Ivan Ljubicic 7-5, 6-1 and reached the his first semifinal here. Gonzalez was down 5-2 in the first set, but broke at 3-5. At 4-5 15-0, Ljubicic asked an injury timeout and had a therapist look at his toe. Gonzalez took advantage of a weakened Ljubicic breaking immediately after at 5-5 and running away with the win with a quick second set.
Federer takes a 5-0 lead in the series against Gonzalez (three times in 2005) with the last one coming at Wimbledon.
