By James Eve
ROME, May 7 - Spanish teenager Rafael Nadal
reached his sixth final of the year when he edged out compatriot
David Ferrer 4-6 6-4 7-5 at the Rome Masters on Saturday.
Nadal next faces either ninth seed Guillermo Coria or Andre
Agassi, who is trying to reclaim the title he won in 2002.
The 18-year-old Nadal, who became the youngest semi-finalist
at the claycourt event since Sergi Bruguera in 1989, quashed
Ferrer's challenge to extend his winning streak to 16 matches.
Having already won four titles on clay this year, including
the last month's Monte Carlo Masters, Nadal started in
business-like fashion and lashed groundstrokes past his
bewildered opponent to break in the opening game.
As the match continued, however, Ferrer began to time his
shots better and forced the fifth seed into forehand errors that
caused him to drop serve in the eighth and 10th games and lose
the first set.
Ferrer twice battled back from a break down in the second,
but a long forehand in the ninth game gave Nadal the break he
needed to take the contest into a decider.
Nadal rallied to break in the fifth game before Ferrer
scrapped for every point and saved two match points to level the
scores at 5-5.
He relief was short-lived. A pair of backhand errors, a
double fault and a wild smash by Ferrer put Nadal back in front
and the teenager served out to win.