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Geneva — Defending champion Stan Wawrinka advanced to the Geneva Open final by beating unseeded Andrey Kuznetsov 6-3, 7-6 (4) on Friday.
The top-seeded Wawrinka will face qualifier Mischa Zverev of Germany, who has peaked this week after a poor clay-court season and beat second-seeded Kei Nishikori 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in the other semifinal.
Wawrinka, the U.S. Open champion, will seek a 16th career singles titles and a seventh on clay, including the 2015 French Open. Zverev is looking for his first title at age 29.
Still, Zverev beat the third-ranked Wawrinka when they last played, at the Swiss Indoors in Basel in October.
Wawrinka clinched with a service winner against the 85th-ranked Kuznetsov.
Earlier, Zverev wasted two match-point chances on Nishikori's serve before breezing through his next service game to clinch with a backhand volley winner.
The final on Saturday will be only the second of Zverev's injury-hit career. The Russian-born left-hander was runner-up at Metz, France, in September 2010.
As recently as March 2015, Zverev had a ranking over 1000 and was being overshadowed by his younger brother Alexander, now a top-10 player at age 20 after winning the Rome title last weekend.
Mischa Zverev's win over top-ranked Andy Murray at the Australian Open in January — before a quarterfinals loss to Roger Federer — lifted him to a then-career best No. 35.
However, he had a 1-6 record on clay in recent weeks and needed to come through qualifying to get into the Geneva main draw.
Results:
Semi-finals
Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI x1) bt Andrey Kuznetsov (RUS) 6-3, 7-6 (7/4)
Mischa Zverev (GER) bt Kei Nishikori (JPN x2) 6-4, 3-6, 6-3
