Rafael Nadal romps to straight-sets victory over Grigor Dimitrov in Monte-Carlo
Rafael Nadal cruised past Grigor Dimitrov to remain on course for an 11th Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters title.
The Spaniard romped to a 6-4 6-1 semi-final victory in an hour and 31 minutes to set up a final against Kei Nishikori.
Nishikori beat Alexander Zverev 3-6 6-3 6-4 in the day's other semi-final.
A brilliant sliced backhand saw Nadal break Dimitrov at the first time of asking but the Bulgarian broke back in the fifth game of the opening set.
The contest remained on serve until Nadal made a decisive move at 5-4, earning three set points and converting the second of them.
The world number one then raced into a 5-0 lead in the second set, and although Dimitrov held serve for the first time in four attempts, Nadal served out to love to reach an 11th final in 13 years in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin.
The 26-year-old Dimitrov has now lost 12 of his 13 encounters with Nadal.
In the second semi-final, German Zverev took the first set 6-3 against Nishikori, although the Japanese player then broke in the first game of the second set.
Zverev then reeled off three games in a row, but having fought back to 3-3 the third seed was then broken again as Nishikori claimed the second set.
The former US Open winner then broke decisively at 5-4 in the deciding set to reach his first final since overcoming a wrist injury that kept him out of action for five months.
