With the top three seeds out of contention, it was left to the fourth seed, Ecuador's Nicolas Lapentti, to lead the way into the final of the Japan Open tennis tournament on Saturday, and the world No. 16 duly obliged with a clinical 6-3, 6-4 victory over Slovakia's Dominik Hrbaty.
Lapentti will face Sjeng Schalken in the final at Ariake Colosseum in Tokyo after the 12th-seeded Dutchman edged crowd favorite and No. 8 seed Hitcham Arazi of Morocco 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (9-7) in an engrossing second semifinal that started in pleasant sunshine and ended over 2 1/2 hours later under floodlights with a chilly breeze blowing in off Tokyo Bay.
Lapentti, 24, fired down 10 aces in the match and used a variety of shots to move Hrbaty around the court and kill off the resilient Slovakian.