David Ferrer in final

Ferrer, the 13th seed, will now meet the winner of the semifinal featuring Rafael Nadal and Latvia's Ernests Gulbis, who beat World No. 1 Roger Federer in the second round.

Ferrer came into this match on the back of four straight defeats to Verdasco.

Verdasco, seeded sixth, started well and raced into a 5-1 lead. However, he quickly appeared to pay for his three-hour marathon victory over Novak Djokovic on Friday.

Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy crashed out of the ATP Rome Masters after being handed a straight-set defeat by the seventh seeded Polish-Austrian pair of Lukasz Kubot and Oliver Marach in the doubles quarterfinals. The Indo-Czech combination went down 3-6, 4-6 in 76 minutes.

Henin beats Peer

Justine Henin beat Shahar Peer 6-3, 6-2 at the Porsche Grand Prix to advance to her third final in five tournaments since her comeback in January from retirement.

The results: At Rome: ATP Rome Masters: Semifinals: David Ferrer bt Fernando Verdasco 7-5, 6-3.

Quarterfinals: David Ferrer bt Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-4, 6-1; Rafael Nadal bt Stanislas Wawrinka 6-4, 6-1; Ernests Gulbis bt Feliciano Lopez 7-6(6), 6-1.

Doubles: Quarterfinals: Lukasz Kubot & Oliver Marach bt Leander Paes & Lukas Dlouhy 6-3, 6-4.

At Stuttgart: Porsche Grand Prix: Semifinals: Justine Henin bt Shahar Peer 6-3, 6-2.

Quarterfinals: Samantha Stosur bt Li Na 6-3, 6-3; Shahar Peer bt Dinara Safina 6-3, 6-2; Justine Henin bt Jelena Jankovic 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-3; Anna Lapushchenkova bt Lucie Safarova 7-6(1), 1-6, 6-1 .