Top seed Lleyton Hewitt advanced to the final of the Tennis Channel Open on Saturday with a 3-6, 6-1, 6-0 win over Paul Goldstein.
The world number 10 struggled to get to grips with American Goldstein's constant change of pace in the first set and was broken four times.
"I couldn't put in first serves and was double faulting," said Hewitt.
"He puts a lot pressure on anyone's service games. He has a good compact return."
Hewitt dug in in the second set, playing further inside the baseline and ripping his return of serves. Goldstein grew extremely erratic, while Hewitt consistently hit the lines.
"He wasn't making a lot of easy mistakes so I tried to put more pressure on him and I was able to do that," said Hewitt. "The momentum really swung. I felt I was into his service games and just needed to take care of my own service games.
"Halfway through the second set, I felt I was dictating and was the better player out there."
The 25-year-old Australian also reached the San Jose final two weeks ago, but fell to Britain's Andy Murray.
The former world number one, who hasn't won a title in more than a year, will play the winner of fifth seed James Blake and Croatia's Ivo Karlovic.