Roger Federer fought off a strong challenge from countryman Marco Chiudinelli to set up a final meeting with Novak Djokovic at the Davidoff Swiss Indoors in his home town of Basle.

The world number one, who has won this title for the past three years, would surely have been somewhat surprised to meet his sometime doubles partner at this stage of the tournament.

Chiudinelli, 28, who also hails from Basle, has been enjoying something of a late-career flourish and should break into the world's top 70 for the first time on the back of his run.

He more than matched Federer in the first set but the top seed proved too strong in the tie-break and then broke early in the second on his way to a 7-6 (9/7) 6-3 victory.

Not for the first time this tournament, second seed Djokovic needed all his battling skills to come through and book his place in the final.

The Serbian had to come from a set down to beat another home player, Stanislas Wawrinka, and he cut it even finer against Radek Stepanek.

The Czech was fighting to keep alive his slim chances of qualifying for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London later this month and he looked well on course when he took the first set on a tie-break.

Stepanek had a golden chance to close out the win when Djokovic slipped to 0-40 serving to stay in the match at 4-5 in the second, but he held his nerve and then immediately broke.

The decider was more comfortable for Djokovic as he sealed a 6-7 (4/7) 7-5 6-2 triumph to progress to his ninth ATP World Tour final of the season.

Djokovic's record against Federer reads only four wins from 13 meetings, although they are level from four matches this year.