Home hopes Marat Safin and Igor Kunitsyn were denied places in the final of the St Petersburg Open.
The two Russians fell in the semi-finals to leave Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky and Argentina's Horacio Zeballos to battle for the prize tomorrow.
Zeballos is seeded eighth after enjoying an impressive season on the challenger tour and had beaten Latvian Ernests Gulbis to reach the last four.
The first set went to a tie-break, Zeballos prevailing 9-7, and he capitalised on the only break point of the second set to wrap up a 7-6 (9-7) 6-3 win.
Safin's march past Richard Gasquet, Igor Andreev and Denis Istomin has been the story of the week and saw him to within two wins of a fairytale first title in four years, on home soil, just two weeks before his retirement.
Stakhovsky, though, had other ideas and broke twice to take the opening set 6-4.
Four aces helped Safin level matters at 1-1 and keep his dream alive but his opponent spoilt the party by taking his only break point of the final set to complete a 6-4 4-6 6-4 win.
In France, Ivan Ljubicic ensured there will not be an all-French final at the Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon after romping to a 6-2 6-4 win over Arnaud Clement.
With Michael Llodra and Gilles Simon contesting the other semi-final, victory for Clement would have ensured a meeting of two home players for the title.
But powerful Croatian Ljubicic has been in imperious form, facing only two break points in the whole tournament, and kept up that record as he needed only an hour and 20 minutes to bury wildcard Clement.
The third seed served six aces and broke twice in a one-sided first set and, though the second was much more closely contested, he had enough in reserve to set up a meeting with Llodra.
The three sets in the later clash yielded just one break of serve as Simon, he second-seeded world number 12, also failed to force even a solitary break point.
He did manage to win the opening set, taking a tie-break 7-4, but Llodra hit back to level the match at 1-1.
And the unseeded wildcard hit 11 of his 24 aces in a final set which ended in a one-sided tie-break, Llodra wrapping up a 6-7 (4-7) 6-3 7-6 (7-1) win.
Jurgen Melzer became the first Austrian to reach the Vienna final in 13 years after beating Janko Tipsarevic in their Bank Austria Tennis Trophy semi-final.
Seventh seed Melzer won 4-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 today to secure a showdown with world number 13 Marin Cilic, a man to whom he has lost in their three previous meetings.
Croat Cilic beat fourth seed Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-4 7-6 (7-4) to reach the final and hopes the pressure will be stacked on home favourite Melzer.
"I think it's going to be a really good experience for me, playing a home player who is going to be carried by the home crowd," said the top seed.
"Probably it's going to be a little bit like Davis Cup. I'm just going to try and do well. The key thing would be that I serve well to get some free points and from there we'll see. He might feel some pressure and if I get some chances I hope I'm going to take them."
St Petersburg Open
8-Horacio Zeballos (Argentina) bt Igor Kunitsyn (Russia)