Andy Murray will face Novak Djokovic in the Mubadala World Tennis Championship final after beating Rafael Nadal 6-2, 6-0.
"It was closer than the score suggests," Murray is quoted as saying by BBC Sport. "While he had a lot of break points I won the important ones.
"You never know how you will get on until it comes to match conditions, but it seems that all the pre-season hard work is paying off."
World No. 1 Djokovic continued where he left off last year with an impressive 6-1, 6-2 victory over Stanislas Wawrinka.
Nadal warned his fans that he was prepared to suffer ahead of his long-awaited return from injury at the exhibition event in Abu Dhabi. He was rusty as Murray coasted to a straight-sets victory in Friday's semifinal.
Murray's victory came a day after beginning the year with a more testing match against Feliciano Lopez that lasted two and a half hours.
Nadal had been out since October after cutting short last season to have his appendix removed.
Murray was hammered by Roger Federer at the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals in London. But on Friday he produced an encouraging display at the Zayed Sports City Tennis Stadium.
He broke twice en route to a 3-0 lead after saving three break points to thwart Nadal. He broke again to wrap up the first set.
Nadal gave Murray an advantage in the second set when he double-faulted.