World No 2 and defending champion Rafael Nadal faces ninth seeded Gilles Simon of France in the semi-finals of 2012 Monte Carlo Masters, season's third masters series being played at Monaco.

Nadal leads the head to head contest 4-1 and this is their first meeting on clay. 

The Spaniard, who is a seven time champion here, has a 42-1 career record at Monaco with 40 consecutive match wins and opened with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Jarkko Nieminen and followed with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over qualifier Mikhail Kukushkin and scored a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Stanislas Wawrinka  in the quarter-finals.

Nadal likes to burn out his opponents in long rallies and pace his attack by complimenting it with exquisite court-coverage that allows him to hit the winners – with so much authority on both sides of the court.  

His opponent- Gilles Simon is a first time semi-finalist here. He scored a 6-3, 6-2 win over Monaco wild card Benjamin Balleret in the opening round and followed up with victories over qualifier Frederico Gil 6-0 6-3in the second round and against Janko Tipsarevic 6-0, 4-6, 6-1 in the third round. He ousted countryman and fifth seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-5, 6-4 in the quarter-finals.

 Also, he is the first Frenchman to reach the semi-finals here since Richard Gasquet in 2005.

TennisEarth Pick: Nadal for sure until and unless Simon plays his heart out and displays some kind of magical tennis to thwart the King of Clay