Federer struggled at the start of the Monte Carlo tournament

Spaniard Nadal, the second seed in Monaco, defeated 10th seed Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic 6-0 7-5 in Saturday's semi-finals.

Federer made a slow start but recovered to get the better of Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-3 6-4.

The Swiss ace dropped his serve early on but dominated from 3-1 down to beat the 16th seed in 76 minutes.

"He has won the French Open, which is a feat I have yet to achieve, so I had to be very careful," said Federer.

Nadal, who lost his previous three matches to Berdych, began in menacing form and conceded just seven points in the opening set.

Although Berdych rallied in the second set and pressured Nadal on his serve for three consecutive games, the Czech player could not get the break he needed.

Nadal is on a 66-match winning streak on clay and is one of the few men on the men's tour who has a favourable head-to-head record against Federer.

Federer has won their last two meetings but has lost all four times the players have met on clay.

"It's always fun to see the top two players up against each other," said Federer. "I hope we can live up to the expectations and play a good match.

"We had some great matches last year including three phenomenal finals on clay."