World number one tennis player Roger Federer of Switzerland has reached the semifinals at the Monte Carlo Masters clay-court tournament for the first time in his career.
Federer had little difficulty in beating eighth-seeded David Ferrer of Spain on Friday, 6-1, 6-3. The Swiss star has now won 32 of the 33 matches he has played this year. His opponent Saturday will be 12th seed Fernando Gonzalez of Chile who upset fourth seed Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia, 7-5, 6-1.
World number two Rafael Nadal of Spain, the defending champion at this event, won his quarterfinal easily. He took his 40th straight clay court match over sixth seed Guillermo Coria of Argentina, 6-2, 6-1. Nadal next meets seventh seed Gaston Gaudio of Argentina.
Gaudio, the 2004 French Open champion, reached the final four with a 6-1, 6-3 triumph over 15th seed Tommy Robredo of Spain.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.