German awaits former Grand Slam champ in Auckland final
Former world number one Juan Carlos Ferrero will meet Philipp Kohlschreiber in the Auckland Open final after a 6-3 6-4 victory over Julien Benneteau.
The 2003 French Open champion was too strong for Benneteau, who had shocked top seed and defending champion David Ferrer in the quarter-finals.
Seventh seed Kohlschreiber defeated Juan Monaco 6-2 6-1 in a one-sided semi-final to set up Saturday's meeting with Ferrero.
"Today I went to the court to play my game, to be aggressive," Ferrero said. "I think today I was more aggressive than yesterday with my forehand. Yesterday was a bit windy so today was a bit easier."
While Ferrero looked totally in control, he needed four match points to seal victory.
"I was a little bit nervous at the end. At the end it is always very difficult"
Kohlschreiber secured six breaks of serve to ease past Monaco and said he had noticed that the Argentine had been struggling with his serve all week.
"I saw that in his previous matches he lost his serve a few times so I played a lot of balls back and tried to be very aggressive and to keep the pressure on and so maybe he would make one or two easy mistakes," he said.
"I felt very loose out in the locker room and it continued out on court."
