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Verdasco books final berth in Nice

Fernando Verdasco has racked up 30 victories on the ATP Tour this season © Getty Images

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Fernando Verdasco booked his place in his fourth final of the season with a 7-6(3) 7-5 victory over Leonardo Mayer at the Open de Nice.

The world No. 9 recorded his 30th win of the year, a feat bettered only by David Ferrer and Rafael Nadal, and Verdasco remains on course to match Nadal and win his third title of the year.

Having already claimed titles in San Jose and Barcelona, the Spaniard failed to make the best of his chances in the opening set, but took the tie-breaker, and then stamped his authority on the match in the second set, conceding just seven points on his serve. Verdasco will now meet Richard Gasquet in the final after the Frenchman beat Italy's Potito Starace 7-6(1) 7-6(6).

Gasquet, who has not won a title since 2007, was forced to save six break points from the Italian, who stunned Gasquet's compatriot Gael Monfils in the quarter-finals on Thursday.

At the ARAG ATP World Team Championships, Argentina will take on the USA in the final after a dramatic day of action in Dusseldorf.

In the Red Group, the USA were one win away from reaching the final after Sam Querrey had given them a 1-0 lead over Czech Republic on Thursday, but Tomas Berdych battled back from a set down to beat John Isner 1-6 6-1 7-6(4) and take the final round-robin match to a decider.

Experienced doubles partners Bob and Mike Bryan completed the job with a nerveless 7-5 7-5 win over Berdych and Lukas Dlouhy.

Meanwhile, Argentina booked their place in the final after Juan Monaco and Horacio Zeballos outlasted France's Jeremy Chardy and Nicolas Mahut in an epic 7-5 3-6 10-8 decisive doubles match. Monaco's defeat to Chardy on Thursday was cancelled out by Eduardo Schwank's win over Paul-Henri Mathieu to take the Blue Group to a decider.

Elsewhere in the Blue Group, hosts Germany won their first match of the week when Andreas Beck beat Filip Krajinovic 7-5 6-4 to secure an unassailable lead over defending champions Serbia, who have failed to win a single match this week. Krajinovic combined well with Nenad Zimonjic to reduce the arrears by beating Beck and doubles partner Florian Mayer but the Serbians will be bitterly disappointed with their title defence.

In a dead rubber between Spain and Australia, Lleyton Hewitt and Paul Hanley salvaged some pride for Australia with a 3-6 6-2 10-7 victory over Daniel Gimeno-Traver and Marc Lopez. Australia finished bottom of the Red Group after losing all three of their matches.

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