Intro:

Rafael Nadal defeated Andreas Seppi to set up a Hamburg Open final against Fabio Fognini, the Italian beating Lucas Pouille in his semi-final.

Script:

Rafael Nadal was on his favourite surface as he faced Andreas Seppi in the Hamburg semi-finals.

The two had met four times before with Nadal winning three of those encounters.

The Spaniard has had a tough time of it in recent months, going out of Wimbledon at the third round stage.

However Nadal raced into a double break lead against the Italian and then consolidated that when he went 4-love ahead.

The World No 10 was in complete control and only dropped a solitary game in the first set, here finishing off Seppi to love on the World No 26s serve.

Into the second and Rafa here at advantage on his own serve showed off the guile in his repertoire to hold serve.

Nadal racing through the second winning within an hour and twenty minutes.

The Spaniard would face in the final either Fabio Fognini or Lucas Pouille.

The 21-year-old Frenchman playing in his first ATP tour event semi-final since Auckland in January.

However, Fognini showed his experience taking charge of the first.

He won that 6-2, yet was made to work harder in the second - that he took on a tiebreak.

Fognini and Nadal have met six times before, the Spaniard leading the head-to-heads 4-2.