Malisse, Serra Reach Adelaide Final

Belgium’s Xavier Malisse and Florent Serra of France will meet in the final of the Next Generation Adelaide International, after surprise wins on Saturday.

Serra [pictured] advanced to his second ATP final with a 6-3, 6-3 upset of second seed and former champion Dominik Hrbaty of the Slovak Republic. Malisse, meanwhile, outplayed the 2005 BNP Paribas Masters Series winner, Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, 6-4, 6-0.

In windy conditions at Memorial Drive, Serra earned the third scalp of a seeded player in one hour and 16 minutes. Earlier in the week the Frenchman had stopped third-ranked Spaniard Tommy Robredo in the second round and seventh seed Jarkko Nieminen of Finland in the quarterfinals.

Any hope of Hrbaty fighting back was thwarted by 27 unforced errors and six double faults. The 28-year-old, who celebrated his birthday on January 4, saw his service broken three times in the first set and once in the second set.

Malisse will be looking to improve upon his career record in finals against Serra on Sunday. The Belgium captured his first ATP title in Delray Beach in 2005, but has finished a runner-up on six other occasions.

The 25-year-old, once ranked No. 19 in the INDESIT ATP Ranking, played near flawless tennis in the second set of his semifinal win over Berdych.

After winning a hard-fought first set, Malisse needed just 21 minutes to race through the second set and wrap up victory. Berdych felt the pressure in the second set with his first serve percentage falling to just 31 percent.

WHAT THE PLAYERS SAID:
Malisse: "I think the key to the match was the first game of the second set. I returned really well and I broke him at love and then I started reading his serve really well. I didn't make any mistakes and hit good passing shots and everything was good.

"Everything is going very well and part of that is fitness because you are always in the right place and you feel like you can get to any ball. Once you get the confidence going you feel like you can add things to your game and I've been working on staying aggressive and it is paying off."

Serra: "I'm very happy to be in the final. I'm very happy with my game and I tried to be aggressive and go to the net and I'm pleased with my game.

"It was a little bit windy out there and I think that he [Hrbaty] had some problems with his serve and he gave me some doubles faults but I played good and it was OK. With the wind it wasn't very easy because it was turning around on the court but I tried to stay concentrated on my game.” (ATP)