World No. 18 Nicolas Almagro reached his second ATP World Tour final in three weeks Saturday as he defeated fellow Spaniard Daniel Gimeno-Traver 7-6(7), 3-6, 6-3 in the semi-finals of the Allianz Suisse Open Gstaad, an ATP World Tour 250 clay-court tennis tournament in Switzerland.

Two weeks ago, the 24 year old snapped a 17-month title drought by winning his sixth ATP World Tour trophy on clay in Bastad (d. Soderling). He improved to a 27-11 mark on clay this season (37-18 overall), having also reached the Madrid semi-finals and the quarter-finals at Roland Garros, falling to Rafael Nadal on both occasions.

The second seed saved one set point in the first set tie-break at 5-6 and rallied to clinch the set on his second opportunity. However, Gimeno-Traver, who was contesting his second straight ATP World Tour semi-final, hit back in the second set with one break of serve in the fourth game to level the match. Almagro recovered well in the deciding set, though, racing to a 3-0 lead before sealing victory in two hours.

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"Today was a very difficult match," reflected Almagro. "We are friends and used to practise together when we were about 14 years old. I was a bit more lucky this time, especially in the important moments.

"Today I played more aggressive and better than yesterday. I hope that I can play like this tomorrow. I need to take my chances."

In his ninth ATP World Tour final, all of which have come on clay, Almagro will face French No. 7 seed Richard Gasquet, who ended Kazakhstani qualifier Yuri Schukin’s run with a 6-3, 6-4 win in the second semi-final.

Almagro takes a 1-0 career lead over Gasquet into the final, having beaten the Frenchman in a closely fought contest on clay in Acapulco in February.

"In the final everything is possible," said Gasquet. "He's one of the best clay-court players in the world, with modern and very powerful tennis."

World No. 47 Gasquet, who improved to an 11-1 record in Gstaad, will look to reclaim the title he won in 2006 with victory over Feliciano Lopez. He is through to his third ATP World Tour final of the year, and the 14th of his career (6-7 record); he finished runner-up to Marcos Baghdatis in Sydney and won his sixth title in Nice by defeating Fernando Verdasco.

"It's nice to be back in the final here in Gstaad," said Gasquet. "I'm now playing better than at the beginning of the week. It feels good to win some back-to-back matches. The final will be a beautiful match-up and for sure very tough."

Playing against World No. 147 Schukin for the first time, Gasquet was denied on three break points in the fourth game of the first set, but was able to capitalise when presented with another chance in the eighth game before serving out a one-set lead.

Schukin, who was playing in his first ATP World Tour semi-final after stunning top seed Mikhail Youzhny on Friday, had two chances to break in the sixth game of the second set, but he was unable to convert and immediately paid the price as Gasquet broke in the following game to lead 4-3. The 24-year-old Gasquet then went on to close out victory in just under 90 minutes.