Intro:

American qualifier Brian Baker made it through to the final of the Open de Nice Cote d'Azur.

He fought back from a set down to beat Russian former world number three Nikolay Davydenko, 7-6(5), 6-4, 6-2.

Script:

America v Russia in the second semi-final of the Nice Open.

Qualifier Brian Baker up against former world number three Nikolay Davydenko.

The Russian taking the first set 7-6 on a tiebreak, after more than an hour of play.

But then it was all downhill from there.

The 27 year-old American, ranked at 216 in the world, had already put out number four seed Gael Monfils in the second round on Wednesday.

This time, he shrugged off his first set loss to turn the screws on his more experienced opponent.

A difficult, blustery wind troubled both players all match and in all there were thirteen breaks of serve.

But it was Baker who coped with the conditions the better, taking the next two sets, 6-4 and then 6-2 to close out a win in more than two and-a-half hours.

He will now face the number three seed Nicolas Almagro in Saturday's final.

The Spaniard earlier dispatching Gilles Simon in just 68 minutes.