Rafael Nadal is closing in on a fourth Monte Carlo Masters title after beating David Ferrer to reach the semi-finals.
Davydenko overcomes service jitters to reach last four
Rafael Nadal is closing in on a fourth Monte Carlo Masters title after beating David Ferrer to reach the semi-finals.
Nadal, who completed a hat-trick of titles at this event 12 months ago, won 6-1 7-5 to book his place in the last four, where he will meet Nikolay Davydenko.
The world number two dominated the first set but was made to fight for his victory in the second.
Ferrer secured an early break and led 3-1 and 5-3 only to allow Nadal to come storming back.
The 21-year-old Mallorcan reeled off four successive games to finish the contest and extend his winning run on the Monte Carlo clay to 20 matches.
Davydenko through
Fourth seed Davydenko overcame another serving crisis to secure a drawn out victory over Igor Andreev in their quarter-final tie.
The unseeded Russian benefited from his countryman dropping his serve seven times in the match but Davydenko managed nine breaks to finally come through 6-3 4-6 7-5 in two hours and 44 minutes.
Davydenko, who has fallen apart on his serve in the past, incredibly broke Andreev three times in the second set but only managed to hold his own once to allow his opponent back in the match.
The deciding set saw two breaks of serve on either side before Andreev squandered a 40-0 lead on his own serve in the 12th game as Davydenko clinched a place in the last four.
"I fought back in the first set and played very well but in the second set he changed tactics, tried to play more slowly, hitting no winners and just tried to keep the ball in court," said Davydenko.
