David Ferrer will have to do something he’s never done before if he wants to win a fourth tennis title in Auckland – beat Gael Monfils.

The world number five is through to the semi-finals once again after accounting for Slovakia’s Lukas Lacko inside an hour on Thursday.

But the Spaniard has yet to beat the unpredictable Frenchman in three previous encounters, and Monfils earned a semi-final clash with him with an epic three-set victory over Tommy Haas on Thursday evening.

However, all their previous clashes have been in Monfils’ home country.

Monfils twice beat Ferrer in the French Open – once in four sets in 2008, the second in five sets in 2011 – and he also bested Ferrer in five sets in a Davis Cup tie on a hard court.

“It will be different. It’s not the same, it was a different mentality, different level, different moment in those games,” Monfils said of Friday’s game.

“Tomorrow will be very hard because I don’t know how I will wake up – if I will be very tired, with sore legs, or my lower back a bit painful.”

Ferrer says Monfils will be a challenge.

“Gael Monfils is a top player, he is playing well,” he said.

“With Gael I had a lot of chance to beat him but I never did, so I hope that will change.”

Second seed Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany will play fourth seed Sam Querrey in the other semi-final, knowing he will need to return well to beat the big-serving American.

“If I play a lot of balls back then I think I have a good chance to beat him from the baseline, but if he serves well then I have to wait for my chances.”

Querrey said Kohlschreiber was a quality returner so he will need to improve on the form which took him past Jesse Levine of Canada on Thursday.

“He’s got quick, compact swings on the return. He’s got that one-handed backhand so he can block it back, he’s got a good chip, so I’ll have to serve well to win.”