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Ferrero wins to close in on first ATP title since 2003

Former world No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero moved within sight of his first ATP title since 2003 when he beat French underdog Julien Benneteau to reach the Heineken Open final yesterday.

The Spaniard, currently ranked 24, set up a final with Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber as he won 6-3, 6-4, ending Benneteau's run which included the scalps of sixth seed Nicolas Almagro and defending champion David Ferrer.

Ferrero had to fight hard to overcome Benneteau but broke in the eighth game as he took the first set with greater accuracy and power in his ground strokes.

"Today I went to the court to play my game, to be aggressive," said the former French Open champion.

Ferrero found conditions easier with less wind than on Thursday, when he struggled to a three-set victory over Chilean qualifier Nicolas Massu.

Benneteau said he failed to reach the heights of his performance against Ferrer but paid tribute to Ferrero.

"Yesterday was special but I think I played well again today, it's just that Juan Carlos was very good," he said.

Kohlschreiber, the seventh seed, will be appearing in just his second ATP final after beating fourth seed Juan Monaco of Argentina 6-2, 6-1 in 65 minutes.

Monaco hit a number of unforced errors and had his serve broken six times in his first loss in three encounters with the German.

Kohlschreiber said afterwards that Monaco had mentioned earlier in the week he was having some trouble finding his service rhythm.

"I also saw that in his previous matches he lost his serve a few times, so I played a lot of balls back and tried to be very aggressive and to keep the pressure on and so maybe he would make one or two easy mistakes," he said.
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