Top seed Juan Martin del Potro will play sixth seeded American Sam Querrey in the Auckland Open final after both advanced to the title match in contrasting style on Friday.
Querrey recovered from a set down and saved a match point to beat Spanish second seed David Ferrer 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 before Del Potro overwhelmed third-seeded Swede Robin Soderling 6-4, 6-3.
Paes in final
The tall American was trailing 4-1 in the third set before he fought back to 5-4 then saved match point while Ferrer was serving, with the Spaniard making two double faults in the game.
The deciding set went to a tiebreak, which Querrey totally dominated, racing out to a 5-1 lead and while the Spaniard managed to reduce the gap to 5-4, Querrey's booming serve carried him to the victory.
The blustery conditions at the Stanley Street courts made the match an error-strewn affair with Querrey committing 31 unforced errors to Ferrer's 29.
World number nine Del Potro, however, made light work of his semi-final with Soderling.
The Argentine did not give a single break opportunity to Soderling and capitalised on the Swede's second serve, winning 23 points from a total of 29 chances.
Del Potro, who won four titles last year, will be seeking his fifth career title on Saturday, while Querrey, who won his first title at Las Vegas [Images] last year, will be seeking his second.
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