If you looked at the semifinal lineup at Valencia (which the announcers have taken to calling  “Valenthia” to imitate the lisp that Spaniards have), you would have seen del Potro vs. Granollers and Ferrer vs. Monaco.  Granollers is ranked 34 in the world, and he’s the fifth ranked Spaniard behind Nadal, Almagro, Lopez, and Verdasco.  Monaco is ranked 41 in the world and he’s the third ranked Argentine behind del Potro and Juan Ignacio Chela.

A betting person would have picked the nice final of Ferrer against del Potro and that might have been the preview to the Davis Cup final between Argentina and Spain.

Apparently, no one told Granollers or Monaco.

Granollers started the day playing del Potro and won 64, 76 despite del Potro having a break early in the second.

Meanwhile, Monaco needed three sets to beat the defending champ, David Ferrer, 75, 16, 63.  Valencia is one of those few tournaments that doesn’t have Hawkeye.  Apparently, Ferrer got upset with some call, but due to no Hawkeye, they had to go with the official call, and it seemed to rattle him enough for Monaco to get the win.

Monaco said after the match that he is not a popular guy in Valencia because he’s beaten two Spaniards so far (Ferrer and Ferrero, co-owners of the Valencia tournament).  He’ll face one more in Granollers in the final.

Basel

Federer is looking pretty good these days.  After he manhandled Andy Roddick who served awfully (around 35% first serves), he had a tougher battle with countryman, Stan Wawrinka.  Federer got an early break up, but Wawrinka broke back.  The first set went to a tiebreak where Federer got two mini-breaks up.  He handed both of them back, but then got another point on Wawrinka’s serve and closed out that set.  With his confidence up, Federer broke early in the second set and had a comfortable win in the second set, 62, as Wawrinka got frustrated and made more errors.

Federer faces surprise finalist, Kei Nishikori.  This will be their first meeting.