Fernando will contest his fourth final of the year in an effort to capture his third title of the year and sixth overall, after defeating Leonardo Mayer 7-6³, 7-5 to advance to the finals of the Open de Nice Cote d’Azur, where he will face Richard Gasquet.

The road to the final hasn’t been exactly easy for Fernando, as he was coming off an ankle injury suffered in Madrid prior to starting the tournament, and had problems with his elbow in his 6-2, 6-7⁵, 6-4 quarterfinal victory over Sergiy Stakhovsky: “I finished the match playing very well, although I had a problem with my arm. It worries me because I have Roland Garros next week and you don’t like to have this kind of problem three or four days before a Grand Slam.”

He had his elbow taped today, and mentioned in his presser after his match (listen here) that the tap helped him feel better and that there wasn’t much pain today. He received treatment yesterday and the doctors told him that the arm muscles were feeling tight and that he is working to relax the muscles and hopes to be 100% for Paris next week.