• ATP Tour

Fourth Auckland title within Ferrer's reach

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David Ferrer remains on track for a fourth Heineken Open title after he convincingly dispatched Gael Monfils 6-1 6-2 to set up a final match up with Philipp Kohlschreiber.

Ferrer was in even more of a hurry than in his quarter-final, when he beat Lukas Lacko in 54 minutes, and saw away his opponent in just 49 minutes.

Monfils is still on his road back to full fitness and his three-set victory over Tommy Haas in the previous round affected his normally energetic performance.

But Ferrer looked in fine fettle as he only double faulted once and converted four out of his six break points. Monfils needed a wildcard to make the draw in Auckland and admitted afterwards that he was not fit enough to compete with Ferrer.

"David is an incredible player, and today I was very tired," Monfils said. "Against a player like that, he's very powerful and it's very physical."

Second seed Kohlschreiber reached the final after a tough test against American Sam Querrey, coming through 6-4 7-6(2). The German player won the tournament in 2008 and stressed he was in great shape to challenge for a second title.

"I have to say, it was a really great match from my side," Kohlschreiber said. "I played unbelievable."

Should Ferrer triumph, he will match the record of Australian great Roy Emerson by winning the tournament four times, including three straight championships.

At the Apia International in Sydney, Bernard Tomic's 2013 resurgence continued as he reached his first ATP Tour final by beating Italy's Andreas Seppi 7-6(10) 6-4.

The Australian will play Kevin Anderson after the South African saved two match points against Julien Benneteau to win 3-6 6-4 7-6(8) during their two hours and 23 minutes on court.

"It was really important in the second set just to try to take care of my serve games," Anderson said. "Fortunately I got a break and then kept it going to the third. I sort of started to get quite tired. The last few games were definitely a battle out there."

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