A date with destiny?

Nadal and Federer both dominated in their quarter-finals matches on Friday, with Nadal winning 11 straight games on his way to steamrolling Argentine Guillermo Coria 6-2 6-1.

For his part Federer looked his usually unbeatable self in a 6-1 6-3 victory over Spain's David Ferrer.

If each men can make it past their semi-final adversaries, it will be fifth time the top two players in the world have faced each other, with the advantage, surprisingly enough, going to the youngster.

The 19-year-old Nadal has beaten Federer three times, with the Australian Open champion having only beaten the Spaniard once.

The only time the 24-year-old Swiss has beaten Nadal was at the 2005 Masters final, the only Masters face-off the two have had.

Even then, Federer struggled, coming back from two sets down to win 2-6 6-7 7-6 6-3 6-1

Fortunately for Nadal, the only time they met on clay was at last year's French Open, when the young Spaniard claimed his mantle among the game's greats and won his first Grand Slam title.

The last time the two played, it was Nadal who came back from a set down to win 2-6 6-4 6-4 at the Dubai Open Final at the begining of March.

Boding even better for the defending champion, Monte-Carlo's final will be on clay; Nadal has won 50 consecutive matches on the surface.

In Saturday's semi-finals Nadal faces Argentina's Gaston Gaudio, and Federer faces Chile's Fernando Gonzalez.