David Ferrer, who has played much of his tennis in the shadow of Rafael Nadal, has reached the final of the ATP's Qatar Open, where his illustrious compatriot fell in the first round.
Ferrer faces Tomas Berdych for the title after a victory in three tie-break sets against Ivo Karlovic ended a remarkable sequence from a unique opponent.
The giant Croatian became the first active player to pass 9,000 aces on Wednesday, knocked out the world number one Novak Djokovic on Thursday, and on Friday delivered 30 aces to carry him past the former US Open champion Andy Roddick's total of 9,074.
Karlovic is still 1,111 aces behind retired compatriot Goran Ivanisevic's 10,183, which is the all-time record, but he allowed two tight chances of reaching the final to slip away in the second and third sets.
That though had much to do with Ferrer's stubbornness and courage in a 6-7 (2-7) 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-4) win in which there were no breaks of serve.
"It's like a penalty to receive serve against him," said fourth seed Ferrer.
"His serve is unbelievable, and so I know that one or two mistakes on my own serve, and I was beaten.
"I didn't have any chance in the first set. But the match was so close and I enjoy these kind of matches. It all depended on certain points."
Some of them occurred in a second set tie-break which was a tale of two forehands, and in which Ferrer was twice within two points of winning the match after reaching 5-4.
The first forehand was Ferrer's who made a geometry-defying passing shot to reach 3-3 just when it seemed certain Karlovic would make the first mini break for 4-2.
The second was Karlovic's, which looked as though it was going to land for a winner to take him to 6-5, and needing just one good serve to finish the match.
But it landed just wide and Ferrer came up with a reflex blocked return of serve on the next point to reach one set all.
Karlovic did get a mini break up in the third-set tie-breaker, reaching 3-2 when Ferrer put a forehand drive, normally his safest shot, into the net.
But a dinked pass and a service return to the feet changed everything, earning Ferrer both points on Karlovic's next pair of serves.
He closed it out with a plunging service return which set up a chance for a backhand pass, something he celebrated with unusual emotion, covering his face in his hands.
Ferrer's opponent in Saturday's final will be Berdych, the third-seeded Czech who outplayed Andreas Seppi 6-2 6-3 and who appears to be the form player of the tournament, so far not having dropped a service game.
"So far it's been a good week," Berdych said. "It's important to me to have a week like this -- but it's not over yet."
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