Kei Nishikori has cruised into the final at the Barcelona Open by beating Ernests Gulbis in straight sets this afternoon.

The fourth seed broke in the Latvian's second service game to edge ahead early on, while Gulbis made a string of errors to let his opponent quickly wrap up the first set 6-2.

Gulbis continued to come under pressure on his own serve in the second set, but battled hard to keep himself in contention, saving seven break points.

The players remained level in the second until the Japanese forced a mistake from the ninth seed while they were tied at 4-4 to go a break up, before serving out the match in the next game.

Nishikori will meet either Nicolas Almagro or Santiago Giraldo in the final.