Top seed Rafael Nadal looks to reach his fourth straight final and is joined in Saturday’s semifinals by compatriot and second seed, David Ferrer, No. 14 seed Stanislas Wawrinka and Denis Gremelmayr at the Open Sabadell Atlantico in Barcelona, an €888,000 event contested on clay. Should Nadal and Ferrer reach the final, it will be the third all-Spanish final in the past four years.
In the first singles semifinal of the day on Saturday, top seed and three-time defending champion Rafael Nadal faces unseeded German Denis Gremelmayr for their first career meeting. World No. 2 Nadal, who leads the ATP circuit with 30 match wins this season, is chasing a fourth consecutive title in Barcelona with his tournament lifetime at an impressive 19-1. In the past three years he has defeated Juan Carlos Ferrero, Tommy Robredo and Guillermo Canas in the final; his only loss coming against countryman Alex Corretja in the second round of his debut appearance in 2003. Last week, the 21-year-old from Mallorca clinched his first ATP title of the season as he captured his 10th ATP Masters Series shield and fourth consecutive title in Monte-Carlo, defeating No. 1 Roger Federer in the final for the third consecutive year. His strong start to the season has also included runner-up finishes in Chennai (l. to Youzhny) and at the Sony Ericsson Open (l. to Davydenko), and semifinal appearances at the Australian Open (l. to Tsonga) and ATP Masters Series Indian Wells (l. to Djokovic).
Gremelmayr has recorded a string of three upsets on his route through to the semifinals, defeating No. 4 seed James Blake in the second round, No. 16 seed Dmitry Tursunov in the third round and 2008 clay court leader and tenth seed Nicolas Almagro in a third set tie-break in the quarterfinals. The 26-year-old, who is making his debut in Barcelona, is through to his second ATP semifinal in three weeks, having reached this stage in Estoril two weeks ago, where he took the first set off No. 1 Roger Federer before ultimately falling in three sets. The World No. 85 has a 2-4 record against Top 10 players, his two victories coming against No. 8 James Blake earlier this week and No. 9 Guillermo Coria on clay in Munich two years ago.
Following on Central is the second singles semifinal featuring 14th-seeded Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka against second-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer. They have split their previous four meetings (Ferrer leads 2-1 on clay), with Ferrer winning most recently in Stuttgart on clay two years ago after Wawrinka had beaten him in Barcelona earlier in the season. The 23-year-old Wawrinka is through to his second semifinal of the season; he went on to reach the final in Doha where he lost to Andy Murray. Placed No. 27 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings, Wawrinka was also a quarterfinalist at ATP Masters Series Indian Wells, falling to Novak Djokovic; he stands at 17-8 for the season. He is through to his second straight semifinal appearance in Barcelona (l. to Robredo in 2006; 2007 did not play), having defeated No. 3 seed David Nalbandian in the third round for the loss of just four games. He has a 7-16 record against Top 10 players.
World No. 5 Ferrer is through to his second consecutive semifinal in Barcelona (l. to Nadal last year), defeating No. 6 seed Tommy Robredo for the second time in three weeks en route to the final four. The 26-year-old captured his home title in Valencia (d. Almagro) two weeks ago, sealing his sixth career ATP singles title and first of the campaign. He has also appeared in four more quarterfinals in 2008, in Auckland (l. to Benneteau), at the Australian Open (l. to Djokovic), in Dubai (l. to Lopez) and last week at ATP Masters Series Monte-Carlo (l. to Nadal). (ATP Digital Services)
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