BARCELONA: Rafael Nadal and Spanish countryman David Ferrer will meet in their second final in two weeks at the Barcelona Open. Both cruised through their semifinals on Saturday, Nadal beating the only non-Spaniard in the last four, Ivan Dodig of Croatia 6-3, 6-2, and Ferrer topping Nicolas Almagro 6-3, 6-4. Nadal won his 28th straight match in Barcelona, including five straight titles from 2005-09. He missed last year because of injury. It was the 500th win of his career. He's the second youngest after Bjorn Borg to post 500 wins in the Open era. “This is the consequence of years of hard work,” said the 24-year-old Nadal. “The only negative thing is that I have already been on the circuit nine years.” He defeated Ferrer in the Barcelona finals of 2008 and 2009, and in last weekend's final of the Monte Carlo Masters. Nadal leads their head to head 12-4. “I like to look at stats that favor me,” Nadal said. “But every game is different and David is having a great beginning to the year.” A Spaniard will feature in the Barcelona final for the 15th straight year, and win it for an eighth year in a row. Ferrer, Spain's second highest-ranked player after Nadal, hopes to add his name to the honor roll. “I am very happy (to be in the finals),” Ferrer said. “Barcelona is the tournament that most motivates me, it is the tournament I most want to win. I know that it is going to be complicated with Nadal there, but I am in the final and I want to enjoy it.” Wozniacki to face Goerges final In Stuttgart, top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki beat Agnieszka Radwanska 7-5, 6-3 to advance to the final of the Porsche Grand Prix on Saturday and a shot at her fourth title of the year. For the title and the Porsche sports car that goes with it, Wozniacki will play Julia Goerges, who upset last year's runner-up Sam Stosur 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 to play for her second career WTA title. Wozniacki fell behind by a break of serve but rallied with her powerful groundstrokes to overcome Radwanska in the first set. The Dane needed seven match points over two games to close out the Pole. “She is a good player, with a lot of tricky shots,” Wozniacki said. By reaching the final, Goerges will also break into the top 30 in the world rankings, giving Germany two places that high for the first time since August 1999. The other is Andrea Petkovic. Goerges rode her big serve to rally past Stosur, whom she also beat in Tokyo last year. Halep to meet Brianti Romanian seventh seed Simona Halep booked a final meeting with Italian Alberta Brianti at the 220,000 dollar WTA tournament in Fes, Morocco, Saturday after seeing off Belgian Kirsten Flipkens 7-5, 6-4 in her semifinal. Brianti made the trophy match following a walkover win over former world number one Dinara Safina. Halep, 19 and ranked 65 in the world, will appear Sunday in only her second career final having lost last year's showdown here against Czech Iveta Benesova. “It was a difficult match, because she played a different game with slice. But I'm happy that I played good and I found the game to beat her,” said Halep. Ironically it was Safina who stopped Brianti's run in what was her first ever tour semifinal appearance, at Portoroz in 2009.
