One has a past tainted by a doping case, the other is acknowledged as the man to beat on clay.
Both were set to face off in the Monte Carlo Masters Series final here yesterday after straight sets semi-final wins on Saturday.
Top seed and defending champion Juan Carlos Ferrero, 23, proved too strong for unseeded American Vince Spadea, winning 6-3, 6-4 to set up a meeting with 21-year-old Argentine Guillermo Coria, who shocked second seed Carlos Moya 7-6 (7/3), 6-2.
Coria already had several claims to fame having notably won the junior singles title at the French Open in 1999 before his sporting world collapsed when he was handed a doping ban between August 2001 and February last year for taking a banned stimulant in a food supplement.
Although Coria, who had been on the verge of the world top 20 at the time, successfully cleared his name in insisting he had taken the product unknowingly he still had to serve the ban.
Now he says he has emerged stronger for the experience.
"Many people didn't believe me when I said I'd taken the stuff unknowingly. It was a dreadful experience -- but I have come through stronger than ever. I was able to demonstrate the pills were contaminated. As a professional I have learned you have to be perfect in everything both on and off court," he said.
On the court he proved his case of being stronger and more mature, pummeling Moya, the 1998 Monte Carlo and French Open champion, into submission.
The 26th-ranked, 21-year-old had lost both his previous meetings with Moya, but this time he deserved a win which was built on a decisive first-set tiebreak showing after Moya had spurned five break points in the 11th game.
Moya flashed a forehand wide to concede the tiebreak and suddenly his game deserted him.
Before he knew it he was 0-4 down. He held for 1-4 but could not stem the tide, driving wide to give Coria a match point.
Coria fluffed that one, then four more.
But a sixth escape was asking too much of Moya as he clubbed an effort wide.
"I almost got broken late in that first set. But I survived that and I'm very happy to be in the final," said Coria, now looking to emulate his coach Alberto Mancini, who lifted the 1989 title at the expense of Boris Becker.
Moya said the crucial part of the match was the missed break chances.
"The key was that game at 5-5. I wasn't able to put the ball in. And I made a few mistakes in the tiebreak," said Moya, who said the heavy and windy conditions were not to his liking.
"All the balls were coming back -- although I was hitting very hard," he said.
Ferrero, who has beaten Coria, said he is surfing a wave of claycourt confidence after a win which saw him break serve seven times to compensate for dropping his own on four occasions.
Ferrero, who has jumped back into the top five of the ATP Champions Race and who believes a renewed win here will set him on the right path for the French Open after last year's loss in the final to compatriot to Albert Costa, says his claycourt game is now sufficiently refined to achieve his goals.
"Right now I'm playing very solidly -- no mistakes. I've a lot of confidence -- it's easy to play well," he explained.
But asked about transferring his form to grass in the summer, Ferrero said he believed he would achieve "nothing" at Wimbledon.
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