Top seed Richard Gasquet and Belgium's Olivier Rochus advanced to the final in contrasting styles at the Kingfisher Airlines Mumbai Open in Mumbai on Saturday.
Veteran Fabrice Santoro's magic did not work against fellow-Frenchman and "best" friend Gasquet. The 21-year-old Gasquet has been in ominous form in the tournament and looked too good for the field here. He scored a straightforward 6-0, 6-3 victory over Santoro in the semi-final to make it to his second final of the season.
Eighth seed Rochus, who won the semi-final berth after wildcard Nicholas Kiefer pulled out due to a stomach bug on Friday, beat in-form Rainer Schuettler 6-4, 6-4 in front of a capacity crowd at the Cricket Club of India.
Germany's Schuettler had knocked out the sole star attraction Lleyton Hewitt in the quarter-finals.
Rochus, 26, was a virtual returning wall on the baseline and forced Schuettler into making all the moves and the errors. While most of the players here struggled with the heat and humidity, Rochus made a mad dash at the ball to every corner of the court.
The German's tactics of pulling his opponent to the net and passing him down the line didn't quite work with Rochus.
"I never expected this," said the surprise finalist.
"I won a Challenger last week and to make it to the final on two consecutive weeks is great. This is the first time I'm playing here and am enjoying every moment."
Rochus started the match on the wrong foot, going 0-3 down in the first set. But the Belgian got down to his percentage game, and with Schuettler struggling to get the first serves in, had more than a look at the weaker second delivery.
In the second set, Rochus started with a 2-0 lead and maintained it to win the set 6-4.
"My game is not as powerful as the other players. I need to vary the pace, fight it out and need to run like crazy," said the small man (at 5'5") from Belgium, who will play his sixth ATP final on Sunday against the hottest player of the tournament.
"Playing Richard in the final will be tough," admitted Rochus. "This week he has killed everybody in less than an hour. He's young and has a terrific game; he's the favourite to win."
