The third time has proven to be the charm for David Ferrer…

Playing in his third ATP World Tour Masters 1000 semifinal of the year, the 32-year-old Spanish tennis player soundly defeated France’s Julien Benneteau to advance to the Western & Southern Open final, his first Masters 1000 final in 2014.

Ferrer, the sixth seed, was a comprehensive winner as against Benneteau, losing just five games.He needed just an hour and 11 minutes to complete a 6-3 6-2 win over his French opponent, who was playing in a Masters 1000 semifinal for the first time in his career.

The unseeded Benneteau managed to keep pace with Ferrer for the first six games before dumping a backhand into the net to give the Spaniard a break of serve.

Ferrer held his own serve then broke Benneteau again to wrap up the set, finishing things off with a backhand winner down the line.

Unforced errors continued to flow from Benneteau’s racquet at the start of the second set and Ferrer went a break up again in the fourth game.

The Frenchman did manage one more service hold and then showed admirable spirit to save four match points in the eighth game before finally succumbing on the fifth.

Ferrer, who was forced to save two match points in his opening clash with Philipp Kohlschreiber earlier this week, said afterwards: “I’m going step by step. Tennis is always a surprise. When I looked in my quarter of the draw and saw Novak Djokovic and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga there, I knew it was not easy.

“But as they lost, I took my chance and got into the final. I’m trying to improve my game every day. Watching the top 10 guys is a great inspiration to improve also. I’m feeling very comfortable on hard courts. On those I can play more with my timing than with power.”

Ferrer will now face former World No. 1 Roger Federer in the men’s final, his first in 11 tries at the Cincinnati Masters 1000 event.