Nishikori survives Muller test in Basel

Kei Nishikori will bid for the 12th title of his career after saving a pair of match points to salvage a 4-6 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 win over Gilles Muller at the Swiss Indoors.

He will face off for his second title of the season on Sunday against Marin Cilic, who downed qualifier Mischa Zverev 46 75 63.

The semi-final fightback from the Asian ace came in the 10th game of the second set when third-seed Nishikori was down a set against his hard-hitting opponent from Luxembourg.

Nishikori fired an untouchable lob to save the first Muller match-point and aced his way out of trouble on the second to pull to 5-5.

“I saw that he was almost touching the net but my arm was shaking as it was match point,” Nishikori said as he improved to 3-0 against his 37th-ranked opponent.

Nishikori had to go into a tiebreaker to win the second set and square the match.

The seed finally found his game on the final set en route to the win in two and a quarter-hours, with Muller sending over 20 aces to eight for the winner. Nishikori advanced on the first of three match points as Muller fired wide on a return.

“I got more comfortable and played a good match. The balls fly a lot here, you really have to hit the ball,” Nishikori said.

He now owns a personal-best 56 match wins this season. He lost the 2011 Basel final to home favourite Roger Federer after beating Novak Djokovic in the semis.

Nishikori will be playing in his 20th career final.