Novak Djokovic reached his seventh final of the year by beating unseeded Italian Andreas Seppi 6-4, 6-3 at the Vienna Open on Saturday.
In the final, Djokovic will play Stanislas Wawrinka after the unseeded Swiss overwhelmed Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain 7-5, 6-1.
Djokovic showed no signs of fatigue following his marathon quarter-final win over Juan Ignacio Chela late on Friday, during which he fought off two match points.
He still had difficulty shaking off a persistent opponent who had already dismissed eighth seed Marcos Baghdatis and defending champion Ivan Ljubicic in straight sets.
After an early exchange of breaks, both players continued to face break points and it was Djokovic who made the most of his opportunities when he broke for the set when Seppi sent a forehand long.
Djokovic enjoyed some good fortune in the second set when the Italian surrendered his serve after leading 40-0 to give Djokovic a 3-1 lead, but the Serb had to fight hard to maintain his advantage.
He needed seven game points to hold for 4-1 and after a double-fault gave Seppi a break point at 4-2 he fought his way out of trouble with a fine crosscourt winner that had the crowd roaring their approval.
Ferrero looked sluggish against Wawrinka and rarely looked capable of mounting a serious challenge after his opponent raced to a 4-0 lead and held five points for 5-0.
The Spaniard did manage a fine period in which he surrendered just two points in levelling at 4-4 but Wawrinka regained control and broke a third time for the set.
The second set followed a similar pattern to the first, as Wawrinka took a 5-0 lead with a match total of 11 aces helping him to dominate.
More from rediff