Hrbaty in final as illness rules out Haas

Slovakia's Dominik Hrbaty qualified for the final of the Paris Masters on Saturday after German Tommy Haas retired in their semi-final to drop out of the Masters Cup race.

Hrbaty was leading 6-4, 1-0 when Haas, who needed to win the title here to qualify for the year-end event, withdrew, suffering from gastroenteritis.

"I started throwing up in the morning and I feel like doing it again right now," said Haas. "It must be a virus. It's bad luck. I was playing really well."

World number five Nikolay Davydenko will challenge Hrbaty in Sunday's final after defeating Spain's Tommy Robredo 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 in the other semi-final.

Haas's misfortune means American James Blake fills the last slot for the season's finale for the top eight players in the ATP Race, starting on Nov. 12 in Shanghai.

Blake, who was eliminated by Haas in the third round here on Thursday, joins Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Davydenko, Ivan Ljubicic, Andy Roddick, Robredo and David Nalbandian in the Shanghai field.

Hrbaty, seeded 17th, has not won a tournament in two years and reached the final of a Masters Series tournament once before, in 2000 in Monte Carlo.

"It's not the best way to win but I'm in the final," Hrbaty said. "I don't play finals every day so I'm happy about that."

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Davydenko was the highest-ranked player in the draw following a string of withdrawals.

The 25-year-old Russian, chasing his fifth title of the year, will feature in the final of a Masters Series for the first time.

Courtesy of his great run in Paris, he will move two spots up to third behind Federer and Nadal when the latest ATP rankings are released on Monday.

He dropped his first set of the tournament against Robredo but still advanced relatively comfortably.

Davydenko broke Robredo with a forehand winner in the fifth game before taking the first set.

He captured sixth seed Robredo's serve again with a fierce smash in the fourth game of the second set but the gritty Spaniard broke back immediately.

Another break enabled Robredo to serve for the set, wrapping it up with a service winner.

Davydenko regained control in the third, opening up a 3-0 lead to set up victory.

The Russian, clearly the favourite for Sunday's final on the form he has displayed all week, said his mind was already set on the Masters Cup.

"It's looking good for Shanghai," he said. "It's the same surface as here and also the same balls. I'm really confident."