Nicolas Kiefer prevented an all-Swedish final at the Kroger St. Jude in Memphis after defeating Thomas Enqvist 6-3, 6-3 in the semifinal.

The 26-year-old German, playing in the tournament for the first time, kept his hopes of a first title on American soil alive with his seventh victory over Enqvist in 12 career meetings.

"It's very good to be in the final," said Kiefer. "It's something positive but it's not over. I have one more to go."

Kiefer, who is looking to win his seventh ATP title and first since Hong Kong in 2000, had lost all four of his previous semifinals in the United States. But Kiefer, known affectionately as "Kiwi" among his peers, needed just 1 hour, 17 minutes to book his place in Sunday's final against Joachim Johansson.

Opportunity

It will give Kiefer the opportunity to avenge last week's first round three-set loss to Johansson at the Siebel Open in San Jose.

"Of course it's going to be very tough against Joachim," said Kiefer. "I lost to him last week in three sets, I had my chances to beat him, but of course he gained a lot of confidence over the last two weeks.

"He's a great player and I think his doubles match in the Davis Cup gave him a lot of confidence. You never know what's going to happen. I don't know if it's his first final or not, but I've been in a few finals and I'll just try to go out and play like I did the last few matches, and when I fight I think I have a good chance."

Kiefer, the No. 8 seed who arrived in Memphis having lost his last six matches on the ATP circuit dating back to last October, reached his 13th career final with impressive victories over Eric Taino, Jurgen Melzer, Jan-Michael Gambill and now Enqvist, who sent top seed Andy Roddick crashing out in the quarterfinals.

The first set of the semifinal went with serve until Enqvist double faulted on break point to give Kiefer a 5-3 lead, and the German took full advantage with a combination of baseline and net play. As Enqvist struggled to find the kind of form that helped him reach the last four with earlier wins against No. 5 seed Vincent Spadea, Alexander Popp and Roddick, Kiefer continued to apply the pressure as he took a 4-0 lead in the second set.

But Enqvist refused to lie down and gave himself a glimmer of hope as he held serve and got one of the breaks back to trail 4-3 before Kiefer settled once again to clinch victory with his fourth break of serve.

Focused

"I just played very solid," said Kiefer. "I was very focused on my game. I don't want to say I was surprised, but 6-3, 4-0, it was going pretty good and he came back very strong and I had to pay attention a little bit. Then I served out very well and I just tried to play my game and I'm very happy with how I did so far."

On his welcome return to form, Kiefer added: "For the last few months, it hasn't been easy for me. I was practicing very hard but I never won my matches. I had close matches but I never made it. That's the reason why I'm so happy now. It's a good example that if you keep on working and working at one stage everything comes back. And this is one stage where it paid off, I'm very happy and for me this is a great success. For the last half a year I've been fighting, I never gave up and finally it comes back. Now there's one more to go."

For Enqvist, who was also showing signs of the kind of form that took him to No. 4 in the world in 1999, it was a tough day at the office.

"First of all, I have to give a lot of credit to Nicolas," said the Swede. "He played a great match. He served well, he went for a lot of shots and made them today. How I felt out there, I didn't play as well as I have throughout the week. I played late last night, played great then and then it's always tough to get back the day after. I was a little bit low in the beginning, I tried to fire myself up, and then I think I started to play a little bit better but not as well as I needed to do in order to have a shot at winner. But he also played great.

"It's been a great week for me. I've been playing a lot of matches here, I feel like I'm hitting the ball well again and if I can play consistently like this I think I have a good chance to come back."