Madrid, May 10 (EFE).- Spain's Rafael Nadal narrowly avoided defeat at the Mutua Madrid Open, pulling out a 4-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-0 win Friday over countryman David Ferrer to secure a berth in the semifinals. Ferrer had victory in his sights when his opponent, serving down 4-6, 5-6, 15-30 on the scoreboard, found himself in no man's land after an ill-advised foray to the net.

Spain's David Ferrer will play his 37th final when he and Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka line up Sunday for the clay title at the Portugal Open. The top seed dispatched Italian Andreas Seppi 6-1, 6-4 in 70 minutes while Wawrinka ended the run of Spanish qualifier Pablo Carreno-Busta as the second seed posted a 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 win in a match marred by complaints about on-court coaching from the Spaniard's box. The women's title was settled when Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova beat Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro 7-5, 6-2 to claim her first trophy on clay.

David Ferrer has been drafted in as a late replacement for ailing Juan Martin del Potro just in time to save face for the Portugal Open as the event begins on Monday. The re-branded ATP 250 tournament, formerly the Estoril Open, got the bad news from Del Potro's agent that the Argentine was dealing with a stomach virus and would not be able to play the tournament which he won a year ago over Richard Gasquet. Ferrer, fourth in the world, will be happy for extra time on court as top seed after losing in his opening match at the Barcelona Open to Russian Dimitry Tursunov.

Barcelona, Apr 25 (EFE).- Nicolas Almagro won an all-Spanish match-up Thursday at the Barcelona Open, outdueling Marcel Granollers 6-3, 6-4 to advance to the quarterfinals on a rain-soaked day. Despite putting just 49 percent of his first serves in play, Almagro managed to drop serve just once throughout the one-hour, 33-minute match. The No. 4 seed jumped out to an early lead against his countryman, who started cold but later played some solid tennis, particularly at the end of the first set and the start of the second.