He has struggled since being sidelined by injury and illness last year and has only two relatively modest titles to his name in 2015 -- Stuttgart and Buenos Aires.
For a player who has made a habit of hovering up claycourt trophies in his career, he heads into Sunday's final looking to maintain his record of winning at least one European claycourt title every year since 2004.
Having eased past Seppi 6-1 6-2 in 80 minutes, Nadal will face Fognini for the third time this season with the Italian claiming wins in Rio de Janeiro and Barcelona.
Fognini, ranked 32nd in the world, is just the second player to inflict multiple claycourt defeats on Nadal in a single season after world number one Novak Djokovic.
The Italian, who won the Hamburg title in 2013, beat French qualifier Lucas Pouille 6-2 7-6(2) on Saturday to reach the final.
(Writing by Toby Davis in London; editing by Ed Osmond)
Share
