[Tennis]World No 3 Ivan Ljubicic shattered Paradorn Srichaphan's dream of winning a trophy at home when he defeated the Thai yesterday to set up a final with American James Blake in the US$550,000 Thailand Open.

Fans at the Impact Arena were silenced when local hero Paradorn, who was below par and had no answers to the rocket serves of the top seed, lost 6-3 6-2 after only 77 minutes yesterday.

In an earlier nail-bitter of a semi-final, American third-seeded Blake overcame moody Russian Marat Safin 3-6 6-4 7-6 (7-3) in a little over two hours.

Paradorn was nowhere near the form that led him to a brilliant victory over Tim Henman on Friday. He was error-prone and his first serve let him down.

The Thai served a double fault and hit a forehand long to drop his serve in the fourth game. That break carried Ljubicic, whose huge serves were too much for Paradorn, to a first set win in only 25 minutes.

A flurry of unforced errors left Paradorn 4-0 down in the second set. He had chances to break Ljubicic, but the Croatian's tornado-like serves were too much to handle.

"I'm disappointed to lose, but he really didn't give me any chance in the match," said Paradorn. "He serves well and changed his game plan by using slow balls which I felt uncomfortable with,'' added the Thai, who has yet to move beyond the semi-final stage at the Thailand Open in the past three years.

Paradorn is out of the tournament, but said he is determined to return to the top rankings, something Ljubicic said he was pleased to see.

"I saw the fire in his eyes. I saw him motivated. I wish he could continue like this so that he can come back to where he used to be,'' said Ljubicic, who extended his record against the Thai to 5-2.

Paradorn will play his next tournament in Tokyo, one of five events he has entered before the end of the season.

"I still have five to six years left to play and I hope I can get back to where I was. I will try to finish this year with the best ranking I can,'' he added.

The win over Paradorn bumped Ljubicic to third in the world behind Roger Federer and Raphael Nadal. The big Croatian said he was sorry for defeating the Thai at home again. Ljubicic won their quarter-final in Bangkok in 2003.

"I'm sorry that I beat him. I wanted him to win here but not this year,'' said the top seed, who hit 17 aces. His rockets serves should be his main weapon in today's final.

"I have to win a lot of points from my serves. James will use his big forehand as a weapon and I will use my serves,'' added Ljubicic, who holds a 4-0 career win record over Blake.

Blake was down 3-1 in the decisive set, but exploited errors from Safin to get back into the match. He broke twice to serve for the match, but the Russian put up some resistance to force the tie-break.

Safin then missed one shot after another and hit a forehand return long on match point.

"I think he is getting back to the player who beat Federer. He is going to be in the winning circle of a Grand Slam again if he can put his game together,'' said Blake, who is searching for his fourth title of the year after Indianapolis, Sydney and Las Vegas.

He is now seventh in the race to the Shanghai Masters, but conceded there is a long way to go before his place is guaranteed.

"Anyone can step up and play great in Madrid, Paris. Those are the ones that have more points. Players like Baghdatis, Nalbandian can catch up. I just get myself ready to play well in Madrid and Paris,'' said the world No 9, who will be trying to end his losing streak to Ljubicic.

"I've never beaten him, but the last two times were very close. He just out-served me every time. If I get a little lucky on his second serves, I'll take my chance,'' added the American, who felt he was not as popular as Safin or Paradorn in Thailand. But he said he tried his best to make the crowd love him.

"I tried to have a smile on my face most of the time when I'm out there for the fans. I

hope they appreciate that. I tried to act appropriately.

"I might not show much emotion like guys like Marat. I hope I'm not a nightmare for any kids out here as a role model."

In yesterday's doubles semi-finals, the Murray brothers, Andy and Jamie of Great Britain, beat South African Chris Haggard and Australian Jordan Keer 7-6 (7-2) 6-4.

Israelis Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram beat Australian Ashley Fisher and American Tripp Phillips 6-1 6-4.

yesterday's results

Singles, semi-finals (x denotes seed ): James Blake (USA x3) bt Marat Safin (RUS) 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/3); Ivan Ljubicic (CRO x1) bt Paradorn Srichaphan (THA x8) 6-3, 6-2.

Today's programme

Matches start at 2.30pm: 1-Ivan Ljubicic (CRO) v 3-James Blake (USA)

Followed by Andy Murray (GBR)/Jamie Murray (GBR) v Jonathan Erlich (ISR)/Andy Ram (ISR).

nLerpong Amsa-ngiam

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