Berdych, the No. 16 who eliminated top seed Roger Federer in the previous round, struggled in the opening set but came out on top in the tiebreak in the second and produced an aggressive display in the deciding third set.

After another impressive win, Berdych will be confident of getting through to Sunday's final. Andy Roddick and Rafa Nadal will meet in Friday's first semifinal.

"The start was quite slow for me because I was still feeling a little bit tired after the long, long match against Roger that finished late in the night," Berdych said.

"But then finally I found my rhythm, started to play really well and I think the beginning of the third set Fernando was struggling a bit and maybe he was maybe a little bit tired - that was my advantage. I'm very happy that I used it and got through." The Czech broke with a superb backhand crosscourt pass in the seventh game of the final set and from that point there was little doubt about the outcome, with 10th seed Verdasco blasting the ball but lacking control.

"I was feeling that I can play the long rallies so I was just trying to keep the ball in play as long as I could and just to give him the chance to make an error - most of the time that worked," he said.

Berdych next faces Soderling, who scored a 6-1, 6-4 win over Russian Mikhail Youzhny.

The fifth-seeded Swede suffered a break on his first serve but recovered in splendid fashion to win the next six games.

Neither player could establish control on serve in the second set, with the first three games all going against serve, but Soderling did enough to run out a comfortable winner in the end.

In the women's section, Kim Clijsters won a dramatic semifinal battle of the Belgians against Justin Henin to reach the final.

The 6-2, 6-7, 7-6 victory means Clijsters will play for a 37th career title on Saturday against Venus Williams, who earlier cruised to a 6-3, 6-4 win over France's Marion Bartoli.

Clijsters dominated the opening set of her encounter with Henin but then, having been 3-0 up in the second, lost out in a tiebreak to allow the game into a decisive third set.

Both of the two former world No.1s, who have both made comebacks to the game, dominated on serve and Clijsters produced a double fault when serving for the match.

After losing the first two points of the tiebreak, Clijsters roared back to take a 6-3 lead but once again Henin refused to roll over.

She won the next three points to close to 6-6 before Clijsters produced two great shots - a volley close to the net and then a forehand across the court - to win the match.

Henin praised Clijsters for coming up with the big shots at the right moment.

"It wasn't a great match but she played better on the important points," said Henin. "She was more aggressive and took the opportunities and I think that really made the difference." Clijsters also won on a tiebreak the last time the pair met in the final of the Brisbane Open in January.

"It was a very, very similar game and it is pretty crazy to have two matches like that with each other so early in the year," said Clijsters.

"It's a good win but now I am focusing on Saturday, there won't be any celebrating whatsoever, the tournament is not over," she added.

The tall blonde faces on a confident Williams, whose victory over Bartoli was watched from the stands by her injured sister Serena.

"I think a lot is going to come down to the serve," said Clijsters, "I have to go out and play aggressively again." Seven-times grand slam winner Williams was not at her sharpest but still proved too good for out-of-sorts 13th seed Bartoli.

The American broke serve straight away in a first set containing plenty of errors from both players.

After her opponent broke back, Williams responded with a second break thanks to three double-faults.

Bartoli then looked poised for a second-set comeback after breaking to go 3-1 up but Williams broke back immediately with a spectacular cross-court forehand volley and then broke again to clinch victory.

Venus has won the event three times but her last appearance in the final came nine years ago, when she beat Jennifer Capriati.

"I'm really happy to be back in this final and obviously I want to take it a step further," she said.