MADRID, 19 October 2003 — World No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero beat Swiss third seed Roger Federer 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 to reach the final of the Madrid Masters on Saturday.

Ferrero will take on Nicolas Massu in today’s final after the unseeded Chilean beat Moroccan 15th seed Younes El Aynaoui 7-5, 6-4 in one hour 40 minutes in the first match on centre court.

Ferrero took the first set off Federer in just 30 minutes but the Wimbledon champion hit back to level the match with a break in the 10th game.

The momentum was with Federer but the Spaniard made the crucial break in game five with two cracking forehand winners and clinched victory on his fourth match point as the Swiss failed to get back another well placed forehand approach.

World No. 21 Massu, who hammered US Open champion Andy Roddick in the third round at the Rockodromo, had yet to defeat El Aynaoui, losing on two occasions this year on clay in Casablanca and on grass at Wimbledon and going down to the North African in 2000 at Indianapolis.

Both men were playing in their first-ever semifinal at the elite Masters Series level. Massu becomes the first Chilean to play a masters final since Marcelo Rios.

Dokic Stuns Clijsters to Reach Zurich Final

In Zurich, Switzerland, a resurgent Jelena Dokic stunned world No. 1 Kim Clijsters 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 yesterday to set up a Swisscom Challenge final showdown with Justine Henin-Hardenne who eased past unseeded Russian Nadia Petrova 6-4, 6-4.

With Henin-Hardenne already complaining of exhaustion and withdrawing from the tournament in Austria next week, fellow Belgian Clijsters also looked sluggish at times having reached the doubles semifinals late on Friday.

The match against Dokic was her 93rd of the season, and not since Martina Navratilova in 1986 has a player competed in more than 90 singles matches. Clijsters is also the first player since Steffi Graf in 1989 to win more than 80 matches in a season.

Dokic barely competed in the opening set and appeared to be suffering a letdown after her convincing win over defending champion Patty Schnyder in the quarterfinals.