Kafelnikov to meet Grosjean in Paris final

Russia's Yevgeny Kafelnikov will have to overcome local hero Sebastien Grosjean in Paris on Sunday if he is to claim his first Masters Series title.

Kafelnikov dismissed unseeded Swede Andreas Vinciguerra 6-1 7-6 on Saturday to qualify for his fifth Masters Series tournament final. The Russian has lost the previous four and does not want to fail once again.

"It would be an awful shame if I finished my career without a Masters Series title. I believe this is my perfect opportunity," the fourth seed said.

Sixth seed Grosjean beat Tommy Haas 7-5 6-4 in the other semifinal and needs to win the tournament to prevent the German from making it to the Masters Cup in Sydney on November 12.

In any case, Haas and Grosjean will both travel to Sydney either as the number eight player in the ATP race or as an alternate player in case one of the top eight in the world pulls out.

There has been strong speculation that Andre Agassi, who recently became a father, might pull out.

Former French Open and Australian Open champion Kafelnikov was always on top during the 72 minutes of his semifinal against Vinciguerra.

He raced into a 5-0 lead, took the first set 6-1, and was 2-0 up in the second all within half an hour against a hapless Vinciguerra.

The Swede fought bravely in the second set and broke back at 3-3 to maintain some suspense, but Kafelnikov broke him again in the ninth game before losing his serve in the next game as he was serving for the match.

In the decisive tiebreak, the Russian led 3-0 but Vinciguerra again refused to bow and fought back to lead 5-4.

He then saved a match point before surrendering on the second one, his backhand return finishing in the net.

MENTAL ADVANTAGE

"I lost a little bit of focus for a few minutes, which was good enough for him to come back into that set and make the match very, very interesting," Kafelnikov said.

He has beaten Grosjean in their three previous encounters and should have a mental advantage over the Frenchman.

Kafelnikov will however need to overcome his Masters Series jinx to claim the Paris crown.

He lost his previous four Masters Series finals -- in 1994 in Hamburg, in 1996 at Bercy, in 1998 in Stuttgart and in 1999 in Montreal.

In his first Paris indoors final, he was beaten by Sweden's Thomas Enqvist.

Should Kafelnikov win Sunday's final, he would become only the second player, with American Andre Agassi, to have won both Parisian tournaments -- the French Open and the Paris indoors at Bercy.

But first he will need to beat an in-form Grosjean, who has been impeccable in front of his home crowd and should provide some tough opposition.

His match against Haas, who looked hampered by a wrist injury, was one-sided. Grosjean broke early in each set to win with an ace on his first match point after 87 minutes of play.

"I believe I have a little more variety in my game to overcome one of those two opponents," Kafelnikov said before knowing he would play Grosjean in the final.

Grosjean can now hope to emulate Guy Forget, the last Frenchman to win at Bercy in 1991.