PARIS (AFP) - Russian sixth seed Marat Safin overcame an injury scare to beat Argentina's 13th seed Guillermo Canas 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) to move just one match away from winning his third Paris Masters title.
The 24-year-old Russian, the champion here in 2000 and 2002, wrapped up his semi-final in 1hr 35min and will now face either Max Mirnyi of Belarus or the Czech Republic's Radek Stepanek, both qualifiers, in Sunday's final.
As well as chasing his third title here - a feat only matched by Boris Becker - Safin will also be hunting his third title of the season after winning in Beijing and the Madrid Masters.
It will be his fifth final of a year which started with him labouring at 86 in the world.
But Safin's title push almost suffered an agonising and premature end in the second game of the opening set.
He crashed to the ground chasing a Canas forehand and limped back to his chair where he needed treatment on his right ankle from the trainer and tour doctor.
But to the relief of the crowd, most of whom were behind the popular Russian, as well as the organisers, who had seen other top players either knocked out or not turning up at all, he carried on.
He raced through the first set in 30 minutes with breaks in the fourth and eighth games only allowing Canas four points on his service.
His serve was commanding and he backed it up with his trademark booming, double-fisted backhand down the line which had contributed to the downfall of second seed Lleyton Hewitt in the quarter-finals.
Safin went off the boil to go down 2-1 in the second set but recovered the break in the eighth game with a backhand volley hit so sharply that his racquet went flying out of his hands.
In a tense tie-break, Safin prevailed but not without controversy.
At 5-5, a Safin forehand was called long by the line judge but good by umpire Romano Grillotti who ordered the point to be replayed.
Canas fumed but TV replays showed the ball was in and the umpire had been correct.
The Argentinian then claimed the next point, which gave Safin match point, should also have been called out and his concentration was completely shattered when the Russian hit a decisive backhand volley to win the tie.
Canas stormed off court refusing to shake the hand of Grillotti.
11/06/2004 - 16:07 GMT - AFP