Copa Claro SF - David vs David Ferrer

(Reuters)

Update II
This time, the Battle of the Davids wasn't really a battle... As it took "the other David" Ferrer only 64 minutes to beat David 6-1, 6-4. After a terrible and very nervy start, David was just beginning to find his way into the match when a rain delay stopped play.  And when the match finally continued, it was back to the way things had begun...

More tomorrow plus the draw for Acapulco.

(ESPN/Reuters; montage by VD)

Update
7.41pm local. Nicolas Almagro has defeated Stanislas Wawrinka in the first semifinal of the day. Next up now: The Battle of the Davids...

After beating two fellow Argentines in a row, in the semifinal today David gets to face a fellow David: 29-year-old David "Ferru" Ferrer, ranked #5 and the top seed of the tournament. At the PlayStation, the two Davids are a team but when they get to face off on the tennis court it usually means - a battle.

This is Ferrer's third event of the season and the first one on clay, after having successfully defended his title at Auckland and then lost in the quarterfinal at the Australian Open (to Novak Djokovic). At the Copa Claro this week, Ferrer has had it easy so far with victories over Argentine juniors Andrés Molteni and Facundo Bagnis (you may remember them from their stints as hitting partners for the Davis Cup team) before beating Fernando Gonzalez, currently on his goodbye tour, in the quarterfinal yesterday.
For the two Davids, this is encounter number thirteen, with their history on court spanning almost a decade by now and including matches at Masters events, Slams and in Davis Cup. The overall match record stands at 7-5 for Ferrer. But although David won three out of the last four meetings, on clay it's been Ferrer, who has held the upper hand, in all of their four encounters on clay, so far.

Matches between these two tend to be battles. They usually involve a number of breaks on both sides as well as plenty of long, very gruelling rallies and if the match doesn't end in the straights, whoever manages to take the first set prevails in the end. - Those are the empiric facts from past editions. So far this week, David has done exceptionally well, playing with the kind of controlled aggression that has allowed him to keep the rallies (and the matches) short. Today, he'll meet someone who will make that very difficult for him and who won't let him get away with sloppy service games. Ferrer is the favourite to win this match but if David can keep up his level and with the support of the crowd - perhaps anything is possible.