The top seeds at the Stockholm Open - Jo-Wilfriend Tsonga and Tomas Berdych - booked their places in Sunday's final with victories on Saturday.
Tsonga, the top seed, looked well on his way to a three-set victory when Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis retired with the score on 6-4, 4-6, 5-2.
The Frenchman is gunning for his third title of the season and 10 of his career after victories in Doha and Metz so far this year.
Since his surprise second round defeat at the hands of Martin Klizan in the US Open, he has won 12 of his last 14 matches - one of them to Berdych in Shanghai last week.
The second-seeded Berdych thumped third seeded Spaniard Nicolas Almagro of Spain, 6-3, 6-2 - serving nine aces in a match that lasted just more than 70 minutes. It is his fourth final of the year. His only victory came in February when he beat Gael Monfils in Montpellier, but lost to Roger Federer in May and John Isner in the final at Winston-Salem in August.
Berdych has won two of the three lifetime meetings against Tsonga, but the pair have never played in a final before.
Berdych said on the ATP World Tour website: "We played last week and it was a very close game. We both want to play our best tennis tomorrow.
"He plays very aggressively and I will try to focus on my game. If it works then I will have a good chance of winning."
