MASON - August 19, 2006 - Juan Carlos Ferrero continued to display a return to the winning form this week that took him to World No. 1 in 2003. The 26-year-old Spaniard maintained his impressive play on Saturday at the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters, as he downed countryman and No.7 seed Tommy Robredo 6-3, 6-4 in one hour, 37 minutes.
Ferrero, who fired eight aces and broke Robredo for the first time all week, moves into his first ATP final since Vienna in October of 2003. The winner of four career ATP Masters Series events, Ferrero claimed victory with consistent play inside the baseline and by capitalizing on 45 unforced errors from Robredo.
"I have confidence that I could win this match, but maybe not in these two sets," said Ferrero. "It was a little bit easier than I thought because, you know, Tommy, he's playing pretty good, and he was winning also his matches in two sets during the whole week.
"I'm playing very aggressive and not making mistakes. That's very important. Winning also a lot of points with my serve, and I think it's been very important, this week, the serve"
Ferrero’s trip to the championship match included a tough quarter of the draw, facing No. 6 seed James Blake in the second round and No. 2 seed Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals. Robredo marked the third Top 10 player defeated by Ferrero this week.
With Saturday's win, Ferrero improves his 2006 record to 27-17 and will move back into the Top 20. Ferrero, a holder of 11 career ATP titles, is appearing in Cincinnati for the seventh straight year and posts a 13-6 record. His best previous showing here came in 2002 when he reached the semifinals before losing to eventual champion Carlos Moya.
Ferrero will look to capture his first title of the season, and first title since Vienna in 2003, when he takes on the winner of either No. 9 seed Andy Roddick or No.13 seed Fernando Gonzalez, in action later tonight. Ferrero has faced Roddick twice, in the U.S. Open final in 2003 and in Cincinnati last year, but has come up empty on both occasions. Ferrero’s only win against Gonzalez in four attempts came en route to winning the Roland Garros championship in 2003.
