Teenager Rafael Nadal outgunned Radek Stepanek 7-5, 6-2 on Saturday to set up an all-Spanish clash against a revived Juan Carlos Ferrero in the final of the Barcelona Open.
The 18-year-old, who became the youngest winner of a Masters Series event in 15 years after last week's victory in Monte Carlo, brought the 6,000 crowd to its feet with another exhibition of aggressive, high-quality claycourt tennis against his Czech opponent.
"I'm enjoying myself, playing well and am very happy with the way things are going," said Nadal who also won through to the final of the doubles with fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez.
"I'm going to have to be 100 percent if I want to win tomorrow, but I'm delighted to be in both finals and just hope I won't be too tired."
Earlier, former world number one Ferrero claimed a place in his first ATP final in more than a year with an assured 7-6, 6-1 victory over Russian Nikolay Davydenko.
Ferrero, who beat French Open champion Gaston Gaudio in an enthralling quarter-final clash, began to find his rhythm midway through the first set, pressuring the Davydenko serve in the seventh game and then breaking in the ninth to go 5-4 up.
The Russian broke back in the following game with a fine backhand pass and gave himself a set point at 6-5 only to see Ferrero produce some brilliant baseline defence to hold his serve.
Ferrero, who lost to Guillermo Coria in the semi-finals of last week's Masters Series event in Monte Carlo, then stepped up a gear to blast through the tiebreak 7-1.
He raced into a 3-0 lead at the start of the second set as he pinned his opponent on the baseline with a succession of precision groundstrokes.
Davydenko, who beat former Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson and the big-serving Max Mirnyi on his way to the semis, crumbled under the pressure and was forced into a string of errors.
Ferrero rattled through the second set in a little over 20 minutes to earn himself a place in Sunday's final, his first since Rotterdam in February 2004.
TOUGHEST TEST
Nadal, who is certain to break into the top 10 after his performance at Barcelona, faced his toughest test of the week against the gritty Stepanek.
However, the Czech was faced with a daunting task as the young Mallorcan proved invincible on his own serve, dropping just two points during the first set.
The left-handed Nadal used some powerful groundstrokes to help him engineer three break points in the 11th game and made the crucial breakthrough with an unreturnable forehand drive to go 6-5 up before serving to love to take the set.
Pumped up by his success, Nadal upped the pressure on Stepanek with some devastating returns in the second set, breaking in the fifth when the Czech sent a forehand smash into the net.
Nadal, who was being watched by his uncle and former Barcelona defender Miguel Angel from the stands, went from strength to strength as the match wore on and unleashed a brilliant forehand pass on his way to another break in the seventh game to go 5-2 up before serving out for the match.
The Spaniard, who claimed back-to-back victories on clay in Brazil and Mexico earlier this season and took world number one Roger Federer to five sets in the Nasdaq-100, will be looking for his fourth ATP title of the season in the final.
Nadal crushed Ferrero 6-2, 6-1 in the first round of the recent Valencia Open but the former French Open champion has experienced a significant improvement since that defeat.
"I don't see why I should be seen as the favourite," Nadal said. "Ferrero's played two finals here before, he's been the world number one and so I'd say it will be very even."
