BASEL, Switzerland, 30 October 2005 — Cypriot qualifier Marcos Baghdatis stunned Argentine second seed David Nalbandian 6-2, 7-6 yesterday to reach the Swiss Indoors final.

The 20-year-old former Australian Open junior winner will face Fernando Gonzalez in today’s final — following the Chilean fourth seed’s 6-0, 6-3 win over Slovakia’s Dominik Hrbaty.

Baghdatis is currently ranked 85th in the world, although his progress since winning the Australian Open junior crown in 2003 has been hampered by two separate injury lay-offs that kept him out of the game for a total of six months. Relying on fast footwork and an array of cleverly-disguised strokes, the Cypriot crowd-pleaser made an explosive start to yesterday’s match — breaking Nalbandian twice to take a 4-0 lead.

Kiefer to Face Johansson in St. Petersburg Final

Fifth-seeded German Nicolas Kiefer eased into the St. Petersburg Open final with a 6-3, 6-4 win over unfancied Czech Robin Vik yesterday.

In today’s final, Kiefer will take on Sweden’s second seed Thomas Johansson, who edged out Spanish eighth seed Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in the second semifinal. All three sets in their duel followed the same pattern with the only break coming in the eighth game.

Johansson, who won here in 1997, secured the decisive break when Verdasco double-faulted on a break point to go 5-3 up.

Injured Schnyder Could Miss Linz Final

Patty Schnyder defeated Ana Ivanovic 7-5, 6-2 in the semifinals of the Linz Open but could miss yesterday’s title match against Nadia Petrova after injuring her left wrist in a fit of temper. The left-handed Swiss, who advanced to her second final in as many weeks, said she would visit a local hospital to get the injury examined.Schnyder picked up the injury when she slammed her racket to the ground after dropping serve for a second time.

“It’s pretty stupid, and very unlucky how it happened,” Schnyder said after getting her wrist and hand bandaged. If she is fit, Schnyder will play third seed Petrova after the Russian beat unseeded Czech Kveta Peschke 6-3, 6-4.

Roddick Sets Up Final Against Monfils

In Lyon, France, American Andy Roddick set up a final showdown with French teenager Gael Monfils at the Lyon Grand Prix after defeating Frenchman Fabrice Santoro 6-4, 7-6 yesterday.

Top-seed Roddick, who has not been broken all week, struggled for 99 minutes before taming local favorite Santoro. Monfils reached his third ATP final with a 6-4, 7-5 victory over compatriot Sebastien Grosjean. “I knew I had to take a good start to beat Sebastien. I had to put pressure on him early in the match,” said the 19-year-old Monfils.

Clijsters Eyes Ninth Title After Reaching Hasselt Final

Kim Clijsters edged closer to capturing her ninth title of the season when she stormed into the Belgian Open final with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Russia’s Dinara Safina yesterday. The US Open champion was in ominous form and thrashed her 21st ranked opponent in just over an hour to set up final against Francesca Schiavone, who beat Dutch teenager Michaella Krajicek 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.