Basel, Switzerland - David Nalbandian earned the chance to take revenge for a loss a week ago to Davis Cup teammate Juan Del Potro after powering into the semi-finals of the Swiss Indoors 7-6 (7/4), 6-4 over Benjamin Becker on Friday. Second seed Nalbandian has a proud history at the event which he won in 2002, losing the next two finals. He has reached the final for the fourth time in seven appearances.
"I'm happy the way it went today for me," said Nalbandian. "I played well, especially in the tiebreaker and took my winning chances."
Del Potro, 20, the form player of the season with four straight titles over the summer, won his 35th match from his last 38 to improve to 44-11 this breakthrough season.
He advanced over Igor Andreev 6-4, 7-5 with ten aces from the Russian making no difference in the final score.
Del Potro beat Nalbandian in the Madrid third round last week, a year after losing to Nalbandian at the same stage a year ago.
Nalbandian, ranked eighth on the ATP to Del Potro's ninth, said he's looking forward to the battle. He said that he is ready for the challenge after his defeat of German qualifier Becker, the world number 137.
Top seed Roger Federer was continuing a bid for a third straight Basel hometown title as he played a quarter-final against Italian Simone Bolelli later Friday.
Fourth-seeded American James Blake was taking on Spain's Feliciano Lopez.
Del Potro is chasing a spot in the season-wrapup Masters Cup starting in a fortnight while Nalbandian prefers to prepare without distractions for a massively important Davis Cup final against Spain in South America November 21-23.
