Baghdatis to play Berdych in Halle Open final

Updated：2007-06-17 From：Xinhuanet

BERLIN, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus saw off German favourite Philipp Kohlschreiber 7-6, 6-4 to book a final place of the Halle Open on Saturday.

The eighth-seeded Baghdatis will play Czech fourth seed Tomas Berdych, who reached the final for the second year in succession by beating Jarkko Nieminen of Finland 7-6, 6-4 in the first semi-final.

Baghdatis, a semi-finalist at Wimbledon last year, was under pressure throughout the first set as Kohlschreiber started strongly. However, the German failed to take his chances, missing two breakpoints when he had his opponent on the ropes in game nine.

The set went to a tie-break and a bad forehand miss from Kohlschreiber set the tone as Baghdatis broke three times to take it 7-1.

The 23-year-old Kohlschreiber, who won his first ATP tournamentin Munich this year, had chances in the second set too but once again Baghdatis was too good for him on the crucial points.

Berdych, who lost to Roger Federer in last year's final, won the first-set tiebreak 7-5 but then fell 4-3 behind in the second when he double-faulted on breakpoint.

Berdych pulled himself together to take the next three games, including two breaks of serve, to win in one hour 25 minutes.