ESTORIL, Portugal, 1 May 2005 — French Open champion Gaston Gaudio tightened his game in the face of a Spanish attack yesterday to earn a place in the final of the 532,000-euro Estoril Open against Tommy Robredo.

Second-seed Gaudio saw off Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 while Robredo, the Spanish fourth seed, reached the final when top seed Carlos Moya was forced out of their semifinal clash with a shoulder injury.

Moya was trailing 6-3, 3-0 at the time.

Gaudio faces two more tune-up weeks before heading into the defense of his title at Roland Garros from May 23 and victory over Robredo, ranked 34 and coming back from injury, would be a tonic for the South American’s hopes.

In today’s women’s final, China’s fourth-seeded Na Li, a 6-1, 6-1 upset winner against second seed Dinara Safina, plays Czech qualifier Lucie Safarova, who knocked out third seed Gisela Dulko of Argentina 7-6 (6-3), 6-0.

Romanian Ace Pavel Guns Down Haas in Epic Semi

In Munich, Germany, Romanian fifth seed Andrei Pavel reached the final of the $419,754 BMW Open with an epic 6-4, 6-7 (2 7), 6-4 victory over Germany’s Tommy Haas yesterday.

“My arm is hurting so much and I don’t know how I won the match,” said Pavel. “I knew Tommy was a fighter and he had me running all over the place. I am just overjoyed to reach the final.” Pavel, who lives in the German city of Borgholzhausen, trailed 3-0 in the first set but fought back to win at 6-4 with fourth seed Haas continually overhitting his ground strokes.

Former World No. 2 Haas looked down and out in the second set with Pavel having match point at 5-3 but the German rallied to level the set at 6-6. Haas had won two tie-breaks to defeat Australian Wayne Arthurs in his quarterfinal match and triumphed 7-2 to level the scores. Argentina’s No. 1 seed David Nalbandian will face Pavel in the final after crushing Finnish qualifier Jarkko Nieminen 6-3, 6-0 in a one-sided semifinal.

Kuznetsova, Henin-Hardenne Reach Warsaw Final

Kim Clijsters’ 17-match winning streak was ended by Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova in the semifinals of the Warsaw WTA claycourt event yesterday.

Clijsters, who had won consecutive tournament titles at Indian Wells and Miami, lost 2-6, 6-2, 6-3. Second-seeded Kuznetsova will face another Belgian in the final after Justine Henin-Hardenne withstood a strong challenge from 17-year old Serb Ana Ivanovic to win 6-4, 7-5.

Although Kuznetsova got an early break to lead 2-0, her lack of consistency, especially with her normally reliable forehand, allowed seventh seed Clijsters to sweep the next six games.But Kuznetsova, who had lost all of her previous three matches to Clijsters, settled down in the second set and her forehand began to do some damage. She broke to lead 2-0 and held off a break point from Clijsters in the next game by forcing an error with a drop volley before another break gave her the set.