The 8th seed David Ferrer of Spain eliminated Sweden's third seed Robin Soderling in straight sets to advance to the semi-finals at China Open on Friday.

Ferrer, currently world No. 11, increased his chance to enter into the season-ending ATP world Tour Finals in London after Friday's victory over Soderling 6-2, 6-4.

World No. five Soderling held a 7-2 lifetime mark against Ferrer before the match, however, Ferrer had a relatively sound performance in the hard-court tournament in Beijing.

The 28-year-old Spaniard broke twice in the third and seventh games before he served out the opening set at 6-2. Soderling tried to fight back in the second set, managing to break in the fourth game to go ahead 3-1. But the in-form Ferrer rallied back by winning four games in a row and saved his fifth service game to hammer out the victory.

Ferrer will face either Britain's second seed Andy Murray or former top 10 player Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia.

Soderling converted on only one out of five break points in the match, while Ferrer gained four out of nine. "Well, it was not perfect, of course. But he played really well," said the disappointed Swede.