Kei Nishikori produced some flawless tennis on Saturday to advance to the final of the Barcelona Open with a 6-2, 6-4 semifinal victory over Latvia's Ernests Gulbis.
On Sunday, Nishikori will play in the second clay-court final of his career, when he faces either Nicolas Almagro of Spain or unseeded Colombian Santiago Giraldo. Almagro stunned the tournament on Friday, when he handed world No. 1 Rafael Nadal his first Barcelona Open defeat in 11 years.
The fourth-seeded Nishikori, ranked 17th in the world, dominated nearly every rally against his bigger-serving opponent and broke in the fifth game of the first set and then dominated the rest of the set as Gulbis' efforts to force the issue with his serve failed him.