Matteo Berrettini eased past a resurgent Dominic Thiem to reach the Gstaad final where he will play Casper Ruud.
The Italian comfortably moved into the final with a 6-1 6-4 victory over the former US Open champion.
Berrettini played clean and concise tennis from the opening ball as he cruised to an early double break lead for 4-0.
Thiem who finally earned wins on the ATP tour this week eventually found his groove on serve before Berrettini closed out the opening set to love.
The Austrian started the second set in much more confident fashion as he worked the angles and created space on the court.
However Berrettini took control in the second half of the set as he broke twice to seal a 5-2 lead.
Thiem earned one of the breaks back but eventually fell to defeat to a clinical and free-flowing Berrettini.
After the match the former champion spoke about how he needed to play his best tennis to go through to the final, “I’m really happy with my performance,” Berrettini told the ATP website.
“I knew that I had to play my best tennis to beat him. I think my game in general was working pretty well. I was serving well, returning well. I was being aggressive.
“I don’t think I gave him the time to play his game and that was the key today.”
The Italian is now on a 12 match winning streak after winning grass court titles in Stuttgart and Queen’s Club before COVID-19 stopped him from playing Wimbledon.
In the final the world number 15 will play top seed and defending champion Casper Ruud who defeated Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-2 6-0.
After his crushing semi-final win Ruud spoke about how nice Berrettini is as a person, “It will be a tough one for sure,” Ruud told the ATP website about the final.
“I know Matteo well. We didn’t grow up together but the past years we have played each other a couple of times. He’s a super nice guy and he’s also on a good run on the Tour at the moment and also in Switzerland.
“We’ll both seek our second win here in Gstaad, and it will be an interesting match.”
Tomorrow’s meeting will be the fifth time the duo have faced each other with the head-to-head currently at 2-2.
