The Swede is aiming to go one better Sunday after losing the 2008 title match here to Michael Llodra.

The third seed will await an opponent from top seed Novak Djokovic and 2007 winner Mikhail Youzhny, with Soderling now a win away from becoming the first Swede since Anders Jarrdy in 1993 to lift the title at the Ahoy arena.

Soderling pounded over five aces, setting up his match point with his last one after one hour, 43 minutes.

The frustrated Davydenko was unable to stop the Swedish momentum as Soderling chipped a winning volley into the empty court to seal victory.

Davydenko, one of the form players of the past six months on the ATP, had complained all week about a court, which he said was too fast for his game.

"The court is the court, it's what it is," said Soderling, the world No.8 Roland Garros finalist from last year who now stands 7-4 over the Russian.

"I'm happy to have beaten one of the best players in the world," he said after victory over Davydenko, winner of the season-ending event last November in London and the Doha champion last month.

In Paris, world No. 7 Elena Dementieva will play the Czech Republic's Lucie Safarova in the final of the Paris Indoor Open after they both came through challenging semis here on Saturday.

Top seed Dementieva survived a scare against US teen sensation Melanie Oudin, dropping the first set before going through 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Earlier in the day, world No. 46 Safarova produced an upset when she knocked out world number 12 and second seed Flavia Pennetta 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 to set up Sunday's final date with the 28-year-old Russian.

The Czech left-hander picked up where she left off in Friday's quarterfinal, keeping Pennetta on her toes with some emphatic baseline returns.

It was the Italian who made the breakthrough in the tenth game when she rattled an ace down the middle of the court to take the first set 4-6.

But the pressure started to tell in the second set that saw five successive breaks of serve.

Safarova raced into a 3-1 lead, only for Pennetta to break back to 3-2.

But the 27-year-old Italian lost a crucial break point in the fourth game, allowing the Czech to bring the score the 4-2 and hold her serve to the second 6-3 with two set points.

Pennetta never recovered as Safarova powered her way through to win the third and final set, winning 82 percent of the points from her first service.

Safarova explained after the match how she defeated a player who is 34 places above her in the WTA world rankings.

"Flavia is ranked 12th in the world, she's a very good player and still, I was able to stay focused throughout the match. I had to take risks but I did so at the right moments and it paid off." In Saturday's other semifinal, Russia's Dementieva banished the bad memories of last year's US Open when she lost to the unseeded Oudin.

The Georgia native again showed all the guts and determination from that fairytale run by taking the first set 4-6.

But the world number seven recovered to win the second set 6-3, breaking the teenager's serve three times.

Oudin struggled with Dementieva's return of serve in the third and final set and the tournament's top seed finally sealed the match by winning it 6-3.

"I'm really happy to get through such a difficult match against Melanie and be in the final," the 28-year-old Russian said afterwards.

"She's a great fighter and this was probably the most difficult win of the year for me." Dementieva has met Safarova, a finalist here in 2007, just once previously in her career. The Russian right-hander beat the Czech in straight sets in the 2005 US Open.

In Pattaya, Thailand, top seed and defending champion Vera Zvonareva booked her place in the final of the Pattaya Open on Saturday after a tough 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 victory over Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova.

The Russian, who was barely tested in the earlier rounds, showed her class with a polished final-set performance to clinch the match after the fourth-seeded Shvedova battled back in the second.

Zvonareva will meet home favorite Tamarine Tanasugarn in Sunday's final after she overpowered another Kazakh, Sesil Karatantcheva, 6-2, 6-0 to reach the 10th final of her 16-year professional career.

"It was very tough match. It was difficult for me, my form is not good overall. I've not shown my best tennis but I tried to play a smart game," Zvonareva said.

The American-born Tamarine played solidly throughout her one-hour-20-minute match, winning game after game with powerful forehands that forced woeful returns from Karatantcheva.

With the home crowd behind her in the scorching heat, the unseeded Thai, who at 32 is one of the oldest players on the tour, broke the 20-year-old Kazakh twice to open up a 4-0 lead in a one-sided first set.

Karatantcheva put up a lot of resistance in the second set but struggled with her serve and squandered chances to break the 2008 Wimbledon quarter-finalist.

"The match wasn't as easy as it seemed from the score, especially being held six or seven times at deuce on second set.

I just tried to take each game at a time," Tamarine said.