Top seed Lleyton Hewitt cruised into the final of the $380,000 Mercedes-Benz Cup with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Germany's Nicolas Kiefer on Saturday.

Hewitt will now meet seventh-seeded South African Wayne Ferreira, who put out fifth seed Mark Philippoussis of Australia 6-4, 7-5.

Hewitt took control of his match from the outset, breaking the unseeded Kiefer's serve in the first and third games to race into a 3-0 lead.

Kiefer rallied briefly by winning the next two games but lacked the consistency to serious challenge the Australian, who pulled away again.

The pair exchanged service breaks early in the second set but Hewitt was the first player to hold in the fourth game as he took a 3-1 lead. The rest of the match then went with serve.

"I think I served patchy today, that is probably an area I can still work on a little bit, but apart from that I had a lot of chances on nearly every one of his service games," Hewitt told reporters.

The tournament is Hewitt's first since his disappointing first-round exit at Wimbledon in June. The former world number one said he had been training hard, mainly in Belgium, during the last few weeks.

"Obviously, this is a long stretch through the U.S. Open and I've got Davis Cup straight after that as well. I've got to try and stay physically and mentally fresh that whole time so I want to be in as good a shape as possible for the next six to eight weeks," Hewitt said.

MANY OPPORTUNITIES

Hewitt is due to play in Australia's Davis Cup semi-final clash with Switzerland in September.

Kiefer failed to find the form he showed in earlier matches against third-seeded Dutchman Sjeng Schalken and eighth-seeded American Vincent Spadea.

"I had many opportunities but I couldn't make them, and I didn't play consistent enough," Kiefer said. "I felt so good, I was maybe over-excited.

"If I would have continued like yesterday (against Spadea), just a little more than yesterday, then I would be much better maybe."

In the other semi-final, 31-year-old Ferreira tamed the big serve of Philippoussis, 26, who was playing his first tournament since his defeat in the Wimbledon final at the beginning of last month.

Ferreira returned brilliantly and posed a constant threat to his opponent, breaking serve in the opening game and again in the ninth. Philippoussis broke back the first time but could not do it again.

The second set went with serve until the 11th game when Ferreira broke with a breathtaking backhand pass.

The South African, a losing semi-finalist in the Australian Open earlier this year, has now won six of his eight matches against Philippoussis.

"I think the thing is that I return so well. That is a big thing against him because his serve is so good that he doesn't expect a lot back and once you get the ball back and you are in the point I always feel like I have a good opportunity to win every single point," Ferreira said.

Philippoussis paid tribute to the South African's return of service, noting he also "played the big points better than me".

"I didn't feel like I was on the ball today. He definitely played better than me," said the Australian.