Federer to meet in Nadal in blockbuster Monte Carlo final

Apr 21, 2007, 16:44 GMT

Rafael Nadal of Spain returns during his semi-final match against Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic at the ATP Master Series Monte Carlo Open tennis tournament in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France, 21 April 2007. Rafael Nadal won 6/0 7/5 EPA/CHRISTOPHE KARABA

Monte Carlo, Monaco - Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal will square off for the title at the Monte Carlo Masters for the second straight year after each won semifinal matches in rather easy fashion on Saturday.

The top-seeded Federer rebounded from a slow start to notch a 6-3, 6-4 victory over two-time Monte Carlo champion Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain, while the second-seeded Nadal romped through the first set before completing a 6-0, 7-5 triumph over Tomas Berdych.

Nadal will now try to become the first player since Ilie Nastase from 1971-73 to win three straight Monte Carlo titles, while Federer will try for his first title at this prestigious clay-court event.

Last year, Nadal earned a 6-2, 6-7 (2-7), 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) victory over Federer and also beat the 10-time Grand Slam champ in the final at Rome before also toppling the Swiss superstar in the title match at the French Open during a dominant clay season.

Of course, clay is not Federer's best surface, while the dirt clearly favors Nadal.

The 20-year-old Spaniard will enter Sunday's title match riding an Open-era record 66-match winning streak on clay.

Federer has beaten Nadal in each of the last two matchups -- in the final at Wimbledon last July and in the semifinals at the season-ending Tennis Masters Cup -- but he has never beaten him on clay.

Nadal owns a 6-3 lifetime mark against Federer, including four victories in as many tries on the slow surface.

Federer, though, believes that could change on Sunday because of his recent strong play.

'I think I'm playing good in defense and offense. I'm returning pretty good,' Federer said after Saturday's match. 'Usually for me for some reason that's the hardest part on clay. Should be the easiest because the surface is the slowest, but I've always had issues early on in the clay court season where I just feel that my returns weren't good enough. But I feel good and I feel like I have options to play on clay. My serve is coming along nicely, too. So, yeah, I'm happy the way I'm playing.'

After earning his 500th career match win on Friday, Federer fell behind on Saturday and trailed 3-1. He then saved two break points in the fifth game on the way to winning seven straight games to take command, and finished off the match in just under 90 minutes to improve to 7-3 lifetime against Ferrero.

Federer, playing only his fifth tournament of the year, improved to 18-2 for the season. He won the Australian Open crown and at Doha earlier this year, but lost in the second round at Indian Wells and in the round of 16 at Miami -- both times to Argentina's Guillermo Canas, who did not play this event.

A victory Sunday would mark Federer's first triumph at Monte Carlo in seven appearances. It would also be his 48th career ATP singles crown.

Nadal, meanwhile, will try for his 19th career title and second of the year. He won at Indian Wells last month to end a 12-tournament title drought dating back to last year's French Open.

Berdych, the 10th-seeded Czech, provided little opposition early on Saturday, as Nadal won 25 of the first set's 32 total points and captured the set in a mere 24 minutes. The second set remained on serve until the 11th game, when Nadal converted the only break point of the set -- on a double-fault by Berdych -- and held serve to close it out.

Nadal improved to 18-1 all-time in Monte Carlo and stopped a three-match losing streak to Berdych, who won a Masters title at Paris in 2005. Berdych's three wins against Nadal came on hard courts and his now two losses in the series have been on clay.

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