World number four Carlos Moya eased into the Monte Carlo semi-finals with a 7-6, 6-2 victory over France's Julien Boutter on Friday and set his sights on regaining the number one ranking in the world.

Moya briefly held the number one spot for two weeks in 1999, but has struggled since with back problems and been surpassed as the top Spanish player by Juan-Carlos Ferrero and Albert Costa.

"The competition, at least for me, is to be number one in the world, not number one in Spain," he said. "I have to admit that right now it's a goal to be number one."

"I mean, I'm just a few steps away from being number one, but there are many points between the first and the third.

"But it would be a good first step to win here."

Moya, who won the title in the principality in 1998 before claiming the French Open crown the same year, said he had been playing some of the best tennis of his life in the last 12 months.

"For the last year, I've been playing very solid and I hope I'm going to keep playing at this level.

"I would definitely say that I'm playing better than a few years ago. I didn't win a grand slam as I did in 1998. But if you look at the numbers, I won more matches than I ever did.

"So you don't know what can happen."