U.S. Open finalist Ken Nishikori advanced to the Malaysian Open finals while Britain's No. 1 Andy Murray will meet Tommy Robredo of Spain at the Shenzhen Open finals in China on Saturday.

The top seeded Japanese had a tough three-set matchup against veteran Jarkko Nieminen of Finland 3-6 6-4 2-6 to make his way to the finals against fourth seed Julien Benneteau of France.

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Benneteau got rid of second seed Ernest Gulbis of Latvia at the semifinals in just two sets 6-4 6-4.

Nieminen had an astounding tournament, defeating third seed Leonardo Mayer in the second round followed by a win over seventh seed Pablo Andujar of Spain.

"Today was a little bit tough because he was playing well in the second set," Nishikori said. "Maybe I relaxed a little bit. I had a couple of unforced errors in the last game of the second set."

After an amazing stint at the last Grand Slam tournament of the year, Nishikori became No. 8 in the world rankings and is now in contention to qualify in the season finale of the ATP World Tour Finals in London slated to start early November.

The top eight players who accumulated the highest points during the majors, ATP World tours and the Davis Cup will participate in the year-ender.

Wolrd No. 1 Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have already qualified with Nishikori currently in sixth place, he stands a good chance of becoming the first Asian to compete in the event.

Meantime, wild card entry Murray is 11^th in the list and now that he's in the finals of the Shenzhen Open in China, he still has an outside chance of making it into the top 8.

Murray, 27, defeated surprise semifinalist Juan Monaco of Argentina in three sets 2-6 6-3 6-0 to meet fourth seeded Spaniard Robredo who ousted Santiago Giraldo of Colombia 6-1 6-4 in the other semis match.

TagsKen Nishikori, andy murray, Tommy Robredo, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, rafael nadal