Juan Carlos Ferrero put Spain back on track for a second successive Davis Cup by BNP Paribas final when he beat France's Fabrice Santoro in the second opening singles of the semifinal that was unfinished on Friday night.

Ferrero's 63 61 16 63 victory left Santoro rueing the loss of daylight, and also the toll today's tennis tour takes on the bodies of its players. The 31-year-old Frenchman, who came to Alicante as the mainstay of the French doubles team, has injured his left wrist and won't now play in the doubles, nor probably for several weeks.

�I woke up this morning and could barely hold a racket," he said. "I felt it during the second set yesterday, but it was warm so I could play on. But you can't beat a great player like Juan Carlos when you're injured."

All the more reason for Santoro to regret the fact that daylight ran out at 19.40 on Friday night, with the Frenchman two sets to one down but having got back to 3-3 after dropping the first three games of the fourth set. At that stage he looked to have seriously worried Ferrero, and even with the injury he showed the potential to continue unsettling the former French Open champion in the first game after the resumption.

With Ferrero leading 40-15 and looking to have re-established the dominance he had in the first two sets, Santoro then won the next three points to set up break point. Ferrero saved it, and a second one two points later, but once the Spaniard had held serve and then broken to 30 for a 5-3 lead, Santoro's resistance was broken, and Ferrero served out to love.

"I thought before I went on court that I had to play the same way as the first two sets yesterday," said Ferrero, "so I started very strong, very solid, very concentrated on every point, and I think that was the key."

Ferrero also said his Davis Cup experience helped him overcome the additional pressure he felt in having to play after Carlos Moya's shock five-sets defeat to Paul-Henri Mathieu on Friday. "I was in this position before in the 2000 final in Barcelona, when I went on court in the same situation, so that gave me experience, and I concentrated just on my own game."

Santoro's injury leaves France's captain Guy Forget with just three players, but a very versatile trio. Arnaud Cl�ment was due to step in for Santoro in the doubles, and while Cl�ment and Michael Llodra are not as potent a force as Santoro and Llodra, Cl�ment has played 15 doubles tournaments this year, and he and Llodra were runners-up to the Bryan twins in Adelaide in January.

It means Forget has the choice of Cl�ment or Llodra to face Carlos Moya in the first reverse singles, a match that is now guaranteed to be live following Ferrero's win.