Bucharest, Romania – Pablo Andujar of Spain got the better of Argentina's Juan Ignacio Chela in a rematch of last year's final and will face German Florian Mayer for this year's title at the BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy tennis event.
Andujar earned a 6-4, 7-5 victory on Saturday to avenge a 7-5, 6-1 setback to Chela in last year's Bucharest title match. The fourth-seeded Spaniard battled back from a 4-1 deficit to win the final five games of the first set on Saturday, then won the last three games of the second to beat Chela for the first time in three lifetime meetings.
Mayer, this week's second seed, battled through a first-set tiebreaker before rolling in the second set to post a 7-6 (7-3), 6-2 triumph over Italy's Filippo Volandri in the day's first semifinal.
Sunday's final will be the third this year for Andujar, who beat Potito Starace for his first career title in Casablanca back in April and lost to Juan Carlos Ferrero in the Stuttgart final in July.
The 43rd-ranked Andujar is 1-2 all-time in ATP finals, while Mayer is 0-4.
Mayer, ranked 24th in the world, lost to Nikolay Davydenko in the Munich final back in May.
Andujar and Mayer have met just once before on the ATP level and it came in this event last year. Andujar pulled out a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 triumph in the round of 16 on his way to the title match.
Sunday's champion will earn $93,000.