Rafael Nadal crushes Andreas Seppi to secure Hamburg final spot

The Spanish top seed was utterly dominant as he continued his recovery from his second round defeat to Dustin Brown at Wimbledon last month on his favoured surface of clay.

"I will try to keep playing well and enjoy today's victory. These are important points for me - 300 points for my goal of qualifying for the ATP World Tour Finals is important. Matches like today help to bring you your confidence and your motivation for what you are doing.

"From the beginning I played great, since the first game that I hit a few winners. I was very comfortable on court today, feeling the ball well, with topspin to his backhand and then changing to his forehand down the line - a very important shot for me. In general it was a very positive match.

"Every victory is important. And this year with the up and downs that I’ve had, obviously every improvement is important. I played at a very high level. I'm very happy for that, playing with not many mistakes, very well with my backhand, very well with my forehand, hitting winners, changing speeds, changing directions. I think I played a great match."

Nadal was broken twice in a match that lasted one hour and 20 minutes yet Seppi was still overwhelmed by his opponent's formidable hitting from the back of the court as he showed glimpses of the form that has carried him to nine French Open titles.

Nadal hit 21 winners to 14 from his opponent, but made only seven unforced errors with Seppi throwing in a whopping 30.

Nadal will meet Seppi's fellow Italian Fabio Fognini on Sunday in his third final at the German tournament. He is bidding for a measure of revenge in his 96th Tour final against a player who has already enjoyed two wins over him this season in Rio de Janeiro and Barcelona.

Fognini is only the second man to enjoy more than one win over Nadal in a solitary season.

Novak Djokovic managed the feat in 2011 and 2015.

Fognini lifted the Hamburg title in 2013. He was a 6-2 7-6 (7-2) winner over Lucas Pouille in Saturday's other semi-final.