Buenos Aires: Top seed Kei Nishikori survived a tough slog against unheralded opponent Carlos Berlocq before winning his semi-final match at the Argentina Open on Saturday.
The Japanese world number five took nearly three hours to overcome local wild card Berlocq 4-6 6-4 6-3 on the clay surface in Buenos Aires.
In a match that featured 24 break points, Nishikori was slightly more successful, converting four of his 14 opportunities against the world number 77.
Nishikori was to face in-form Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov in yesterday's final.
World number 66 Dolgopolov continued his barnstorming run through the tournament, beating fourth seed Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain 7-5 6-2 in the other semi.
Nishikori has a 5-0 career record against Dolgopolov, who has not dropped a set the entire tournament.
