World No. 2 Rafael Nadal, the curent best player on clay, will face Argentine Guillermo Canas on Sunday to vie for the Barcelona Open tennis crown.

Top seed Nadal, who beat fifth seed David Ferrer 7-5 and 6-1 in his semi-final, has won a record 71 consecutive matches on clay stretching back to April 2005 when he lost to Russian Igor Andreev in Valencia.

Canas outlasted his compatriot Agustin Calleri 7-6, 6-7 and 6-2 to reach his third final of a year, when his ranking has risen from 142 to 28, including back-to-back wins over world number one Roger Federer in Indian Wells and Miami last month.

At 5-4 and 30-30 on Nadal's serve, Ferrer was just two points away from the first set but Nadal held on and broke in the 11th game before serving out for the set.

After that, Nadal was in control as he broke three times in the second set to claim his place in the final.

However, Canas took almost three hours to beat Galleri after he double-faulted on his second match point and went into a third.

Nadal has won both his previous meetings with Canas and is the hot favourite to join Swede Mats Wilander as the only other man to win the Barcelona Open three years in a row.