Rafael Nadal stormed into the semifinal of his first clay court tournament of the year at the Monte Carlo Masters 1000. He got off to a fast start breaking Juan Carlos Ferrero’s serve in the first game of the match. The beginning of the match was played in swirly and blustery conditions and Nadal lost a little bit of focus to drop serve losing six points in a row at one stage.

This was a rarity considering Rafael Nadal has only lost two games in his previous matches at the tournament. The match was interrupted by rain for about 45 minutes with Ferrero leading 3-2. After the resumption, Nadal played better tennis to break at 4-4 and then quickly led 5-1 in the second set. Ferrero saved two match points which only delayed the inevitable by one game.

He will next face countryman David Ferrer who beat Philipp Kohlschreiber 7-5, 7-6(1). After losing a close first set, Kohlschreiber fought back to lead 2-0 in the second set. Just like in the first set, Ferrer fought back to level terms and then broke and go ahead 4-2. Ferrer then served for the match at 5-4 but Kohlschreiber broke serve and took the set to a tie break which ended meekly in the favor of the Spaniard. Ferrer faces a tough task in the semifinal against Nadal.

Top seed Novak Djokovic beat Former Top 5 player David Nalbandian 6-2, 6-3. Djokovic returned serve very well to win easily as Nalbandian made 33 unforced errors. The second set was a closer affair and the two players were battling it out with some tough rallies. Nalbandian had some chances to go back to level terms with 0-30 lead on Djokovic’s serve but it was snuffed out.

Fernando Verdasco is the third Spaniard to reach the semifinals this year at Monaco beating Albert Montanes 6-3, 6-7, 6-0. The second set saw Verdasco jump off to a 5-1 lead before Montanes came back to win it in a tiebreaker. However Verdasco ensured his safe passage winning at love in the final set.

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