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UMAG, Croatia : Former world number one Juan Carlos Ferrero coasted into the final of the ATP Croatia Open on Saturday with a straight sets win over Italy's Andreas Seppi.
Ferrero, ranked 22, scored a convincing 6-4, 6-2 win over Seppi to reach the final for the second straight year after being runner-up in 2009 to Russia's Nikolay Davydenko.
The Spanish fourth seed will meet Potito Starace in the final after the 64th-ranked Italian earlier rallied past eighth-seeded Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela 6-7, (4/7), 6-3, 6-2.
"I'm so happy that I'm in the final and I hope that I'll become the fifth Spanish player to win this tournament," said the 2003 Roland Garros winner, who will be looking to add to the claycourt trophies he won in Costa do Sauipe, Brazil and Buenos Aires this year.
Ferrero twice threw away a break advantage in the first set before breaking serve again in the ninth game and closing out for a one-set lead.
The 30-year-old race to a 5-1 lead in the second set before sealing victory in 80 minutes.
In the final Ferrero will meet Starace against whom he has a 5-1 record.
Starace had a harder task against Chela. The Italian opened a 5-2 lead in the first set before Chela came back to level 5-5 before winning the tie-break.
The Italian bounced back in the second set to take a 5-2 lead but this time he held his advantage to level proceedings at one set all.
In the third set, Starace continued to dominate, winning the final four games from 2-2, to wrap up the tie in just under two and a half hours.
"Although the result maybe doesn't show it for me it was a very difficult and exhausting match since I had a great opponent," said the 29-year-old Italian, who is bidding for his first title in his third final after finishing runner-up in Valencia and Kitzbuhel in 2007. - AFP/fa
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