Intro:

Czech World number seven Thomas Berdych books place in Kooyong Classic final with 6-4, 6-1 win over Japan's Kei Nishikori in Melbourne, Australia on Thursday.

Script:

The Kooyong Classic continued in Melbourne on Thursday, on another day of sweltering temperatures.

The former home of the Australian Open now hosts a tournament seen by many players taking part as an ideal warm up for the first Grand Slam of the new year, where the Australian Open gets underway on Monday at Melbourne Park.

Czech player Thomas Berdych continued his fine-tuning for the Aussie Open with a convincing 6-4, 6-1 win against Japan's Kei Nishikori.

The world number seven will play the winner of tomorrow's all-French duel between Richard Gasquet and Gilles Simon in Saturday's final.

This is Berdych's fourth attempt to win the Kooyong warm-up event. He lost to eventual winner Lleyton Hewitt last year before beating Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis in the playoff for third place.

In a later match, Spanish left-hander Fernando Verdasco used his booming serve to tame Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 6-2.

And Australian teenager Jordan Thompson couldn't reproduce his opening day heroics, falling to Russian replacement Mikhail Youzhny 6-1, 7-5.

Youzhny was called up after Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka withdrew from the Classic field, citing fatigue compounded by a long week in the Chennai heat to win the Indian Open last week.