James Blake ended the three-year Queen's Club reign of Andy Roddick on Saturday to announce himself as a surprise contender for Wimbledon.
Blake beat his fellow-American 7-5, 6-4 to reach his first grasscourt final, where he will face another three-times former Stella Artois champion, Lleyton Hewitt.
Hewitt beat Tim Henman 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 in a controversial semi-final after which the Briton complained bitterly about the line calls.
Fifth seed Blake has slipped through the draw almost unnoticed and nobody has been more surprised at his progress than the 26-year-old New Yorker himself.
Hardcourt specialist Blake readily admits he is a stranger to grass. He has never been beyond round two at Wimbledon and had little expectations against Roddick, runner-up at the grasscourt grand slam for the last two years.
However, he neutralised Roddick's world-record serve by stepping in early to hit his returns and outplayed the defending champion in the rallies.
"That's what I needed to do to beat a great player like him," beamed Blake after sliding a backhand winner down the line on his second match point.
"I had to take my chances and today they were going in."
Blake has reason to be confident in Sunday's final too. He beat Australian Hewitt on hardcourt to win the Las Vegas title in March.
HENMAN FURY
Henman was incensed by the line-calling during his semi-final against Hewitt and called the supervisor on court to complain during the third set before sliding to defeat.
Hewitt, who won the Queen's Club title in 2001, 2002 and 2003, kept his cool and said: "I'm just happy to get through to another final at Queen's.
"Tim was playing extremely well. There were so many close line calls out there and people can't get it right 100 percent of the time."
Hewitt beat Henman in the 2001 and 2002 finals at Queen's Club, although both have slipped down the rankings since then -- Hewitt to 13 and Henman to 76.
A single break proved enough to secured Hewitt the first set and Henman responded in kind to take the second.
In the third set, the four-times Wimbledon semi-finalist immediately broke Hewitt to love but lost his serve at 2-1 when a forehand was called out, despite television replays suggesting it had clipped the line.
Henman screamed "No!" in fury and summoned the supervisor to complain in the changeover at 2-3.
It did him no good and the Briton subsided meekly, sending a forehand half-volley long on match point to end an encouraging week on a sour note.
"The line calling was appalling today," said Henman but he admitted: "I don't think I handled it particularly well."
Hewitt will attempt to emulate Boris Becker and John McEnroe on Sunday by winning his fourth Queen's Club title.
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