(April 28, 2012) David Ferrer survived a spirited effort from Milos Raonic today in the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell semifinals today. His reward? A date with the world's hottest player, Rafael Nadal, in the final.

Nadal holds a 10-0 record versus Spaniards in ATP finals, and he also owns a 10-1 record versus Ferrer on clay, with his only loss coming in the pair's first meeting in 2004.

But as today's 7-6(2), 7-6(5) victory over Raonic proves, Ferrer isn't the only Spaniard coming into Sunday's final in good form. Ferrer is tied for the tour lead in titles with Roger Federer (3) and he leads the tour with 28 wins.

Today he had his hands full with the hard-serving Canadian, particularly in the first set. Raonic, who notched his first top four win yesterday against Andy Murray, is rapidly becoming a threat on the clay.

"He's improving a lot, the forehand also," said Ferrer. "And the serve is one of the best on tour." Ferrer had to fight off four break points against Raonic in his first four service games before he would get some chances of his own.

When he did get his chances, things didn’t get any easier for Ferrer, who now owns a 4-0 record vs. Raonic. Ferrer failed to convert on two break points in the eighth game of the set, thanks to some big serving under pressure from the world No. 25.

But Ferrer kept the pressure up, and soon found himself with three set points in the tenth game. A couple of nervy errors from Ferrer gave Raonic hope, and from there he settled down to hold.

In the twelfth game, Ferrer had one final chance to break, but it was quickly snuffed out by Raonic's tenth ace of the set.

In the tiebreaker, Ferrer took advantage of the fact that Raonic's groundstrokes had temporarily deserted him and raced out to a 6-0 lead. Raonic saved two set points but Ferrer made good on the third to take the set.

In the second set, after Raonic saved a break point in the eleventh game, they headed to another tiebreaker. After trading mini-breaks several times, Ferrer struck the decisive blow when he drilled a backhand passing shot past a net-rushing Raonic to clinch the victory.

"In both tiebreaks I think I played better than him," said Ferrer. "That was the difference."

In the other semifinal, red-hot and revived Rafael Nadal won his thirteenth consecutive match against Fernando Verdasco, 6-0, 6-4.

Nadal lost only six first-serve points against Verdasco, and saved all four break points he faced, including three in a second set that was much closer than the first. In the end, however, it was different day, same story for Nadal and Verdasco.

"Yes, very happy," said Nadal, who needed a third-set tiebreaker to defeat Verdasco the last time they met in Cincinnati. Tomorrow's final will be the fourth contested between Nadal and Ferrer in Barcelona. Nadal has won all three, taking six of seven sets.

"Always it's a big, big match against David," said Nadal.

"It's going to be difficult to beat Rafael on the clay court, but I will try my best," said Ferrer, who is 0-5 in clay court finals versus Nadal.

Ferrer-Nadal, Clay Court Finals