Spaniards dominate in Estoril

Juan Carlos Ferrero leads the Spanish challenge

Romania's Andrei Pavel beat Argentina's Franco Squillari to join a trio of Spaniards in the semi-finals of the $625,000 Estoril Open.

Pavel recorded a 7-6 (6) 7-6 (6) victory over Squillari and now meets Felix Mantilla in the last four.

Juan Carlos Ferrero and Albert Portas will meet in the other semi.

"Of course I'm pleased to be among the Spaniards, they're the great clay-court specialists," said Pavel.

Mantilla came back from a set down to beat Austria's Markus Hipfl 3-6 6-3 6-1.

Top-seeded Ferrero cruised past another Spaniard Albert Montanes 6-2, 6-4 and Portas beat third-seeded Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia.

In the women's competition, Russian qualifier Elena Bovina overcame Slovenia's Tina Plisnik 4-6 7-5 6-4 after nearly two-and-a-half hours to reach the last four.

Germany's Jana Kandarr joined her with a 7-5 6-2 win over Italian Tathiana Garbin.

And two more Italians, Francesca Schiavone and Rita Grande, were also knocked out.

Schiavone lost 6-2 6-4 to Belgium's Justine Henin, while Grande slumped 6-3 6-4 against Spain's Angles Montolio.