Valencia, Spain (SportsNetwork.com) - Top seed and defending champion David Ferrer and fellow Spaniard and two-time titlist Nicolas Almagro will square off in Saturday's semifinals at the $2 million Valencia Open.
The world No. 4 French Open runner-up Ferrer held off 6-foot-8 fifth-seeded Pole Jerzy Janowicz 6-4, 4-6, 6-0 on the indoor hardcourts at the City of Arts and Sciences.
The 32-year-old Ferrer, who was last week's runner-up in Stockholm, beat Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov in last year's Valencia finale, also titled here in 2010, and was the Valencia runner-up in 2005.
Meanwhile, the third-seeded former top-10 star Almagro handled seventh-seeded Italian Fabio Fognini 7-6 (8-6), 6-2 on Day 5.
Ferrer is a laughable 13-0 lifetime against his compatriot Almagro, including quarterfinal victories in Valencia last year and at the Australian Open this year. Ferrer is also 3-0 all-time versus Almagro at this Spanish tournament.
Also in Friday's quarterfinals, Dmitry Tursunov drubbed Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-3, 6-3 and 2009 Valencia runner-up Mikhail Youzhny outlasted Finnish fellow veteran Jarkko Nieminen 7-5, 6-7 (4-7), 6-4. Youzhny and Tursunov will lock horns in an all-Russian semi on Saturday.
The 2013 Valencia winner will collect $490,000.
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