Marcos Baghdatis saw off German favourite Philipp Kohlsch-reiber 7-6, 6-4 to book a place in the final of the Halle Open on Saturday.
Baghdatis, the eighth seed from Cyprus, will play Czech fourth seed Tomas Berdych, who reached the final for the second year in succession by beating Jar-kko Nieminen of Finland 7-6, 6-4.
Both Baghdatis and Berdych stepped up their game at key moments to win tight matches on the grass Stadium Court. Baghdatis, a semifinalist at Wimbledon last year, was under pressure throughout the first set as Kohlschreiber started strongly.
The German failed to take his chances, though, missing two breakpoints when he had his opponent on the ropes in game nine. The set went to a tie-break and a bad forehand miss from Kohlschreiber set the tone as Baghdatis broke three times to take it 7-1.
The 23-year-old Kohlschreiber, who won his first ATP tournament in Munich this year, had chances in the second set too but once again Baghdatis was too good for him on the crucial points.
Jankovic through
A stiff neck could not prevent Jelena Jankovic from battling to a 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 win over Maria Kirilenko in the third round of the Birmingham Classic on Friday.
The second-seeded Serbian capitalised on a rare dry spell at the rain-hit tournament and was joined in the last eight by Chinese fourth seed Li Na and number five Marion Bartoli. Top seed Maria Sharapova, however, was not as lucky as she had to make a dash for the locker room before she could even play a point.
The Russian's match against Austrian Tamira Paszek will have to be played later. Daniela Hantuchova and Eleni Daniilidou were also left waiting around in the dressing room.