Fourth seed Juan Carlos Ferrero reached the final of the ATP Studena Croatia Open for the second year in a row Saturday as he defeated Italian Andreas Seppi 6-4, 6-2 in the semi-finals of the ATP World Tour 250 clay-court tennis tournament in Umag.

The Spaniard, currently No. 22 in the South African Airways 2010 ATP Rankings, finished runner-up to Nikolay Davydenko in the final last year. He will contest his fourth ATP World Tour final of the season and will look to add to the clay-court trophies he won in Costa do Sauipe (d. Kubot) and Buenos Aires (d. Ferrer); he finished runner-up in Acapulco (l. to Ferrero). The former World No. 1, who won Roland Garros in 2003, has a 14-18 record in tour-level finals.

Ferrero twice squandered a break advantage in the first set before breaking serve for a third time in the ninth game and closing out the one-set lead. The Villena resident then stepped up another gear in the second set, racing to a 5-1 lead before sealing victory in 80 minutes. He improved to a 31-13 match record on the season.

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"The beginning wasn't easy," assessed Ferrero. "We played with a lot of rhythm in the first set. The second set was a bit easier than I expected. I tried my best every point and it was enough to get through."

In the final Ferrero will face World No. 64 Potito Starace, who came from a set down to defeat eighth seed Juan Ignacio Chela 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-2. Ferrero takes a 5-1 career lead over Starace into the final, most recently defeating the Italian in Umag last year.

"Starace has been playing well for three weeks, doing well in his last few tournaments," said Ferrero. "He's playing with a lot of confidence with his forehand. I'll try to move him around on the court and be aggressive from the first ball.

"Today I played the best match of my week so far. I will try everything in my power to win the tournament. It's an open match and I just have to go for it."

Starace, who ousted third seed Ivan Ljubicic in Friday’s quarter-finals, is through to the third ATP World Tour final of his career; he finished runner-up in Valencia (l. to Almagro) and Kitzbuhel (l. to Monaco) in 2007.

The 29-year-old Starace opened up a 5-2 lead in the first set, but was pegged back as Chela hit back to level at 5-5 before winning the ensuing tie-break to earn a one-set lead. Starace recovered well to race to a 5-2 lead in the second set and did not relinquish his advantage again as he held on to force a third set. The Italian then won the final four games of the match from 2-2 in the deciding set to clinch victory in two hours and 27 minutes.

"It was a very complicated match," reflected Starace. "I was up 5-2 in the first set and lost it 7-6. But I really wanted to try and win and I played very good, a great third set with a lot of winners. I’m really happy to be in my first final in three years.

“I have an opportunity to win a tournament tomorrow but you never know what will happen. I’ve been playing good tennis for a month now, especially this week. I will try to do something special tomorrow.”

The No. 56-ranked Chela, who stunned top seed and defending champion Nikolay Davydenko in the quarter-finals, was bidding to reach his second ATP World Tour final of the season after winning his fifth title in Houston in April. He dropped to an 18-18 mark on the year.