Rafael Nadal showed true grit on the clay of Monaco to cruise into the semi-finals of the of the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters.

Asked to play two matches within a matter of hours, the World number one  showed his mastery of the surface to concede just nine games in total during victories over first Nicolas Lapentti and then former top-10 player Ivan Ljubicic.

Ecuadorian qualifier Lapentti.was dispatched 6-3 6-0 in their last-eight clash before Croatia's Ljubicic, who lives in the principality these days, fell 6-3 6-3 in 73 minutes on Court Central.

Ljubicic had earlier defeated Italy's Simone Bolelli 7-5 7-6 as a tournament which has been severely disrupted by the rain attempted to get back on schedule.

In the other half of the draw, world number three Novak Djokovic was made to battle all the way by seventh seed Fernando Verdasco in their quarter-final before eventually prevailing 6-2 4-6 6-3 in a match which lasted over two-and-a-quarter hours.

The Serbian will face in-form Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka - conqueror of compatriot Roger Federer yesterday - in the semis after he comfortably defeated German qualifier Andreas Beck 6-2 6-4.

Andy Murray will face Nadal in Saturday's semi-finals after a 7-6 6-4 victory over Nikolay Davydenko this evening.

Playing his second match of the day having beaten Fabio Fognini 7-6 6-4 this morning in a rain-affected clash, Murray fought back from 4-1 down in the second set to win it 6-4, having clinched the first set 7-6 (7/1).

The fourth seed was not at his best and struggled with his first serve throughout, but a combination of patient rallying and Davydenko imploding gave him victory.

With the first set having gone with serve to 6-6, Murray forced Davydenko into a number of unforced errors to drop a solitary point in the tie-break.

Murray lost his first service game of the second set but he immediately broke back, again forcing Davydenko to make errors.

His work was undone when he was broken a second consecutive time to go 3-1 down, his attempted drop shot drifting wide on break point. The Scot then blasted wide to give Davydenko a 4-1 lead but he held his own serve and broke the Russian's with some patient rallying from the back of the court.

Having held serve to level, Murray had two break points but was pegged back to deuce. It was only a brief reprieve, however, as Davydenko planted two straightforward backhands into the net to put Murray within touching distance of victory.

The Russian took Murray to deuce in the 10th game but sent two forehands long to give Murray a last-four clash with Nadal.