Andy Roddick secured a place in the US Open final at Flushing Meadows with a hard-fought four-set win over Mikhail Youzhny.
The ninth seed came through 6-7 6-0 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 against the unseeded Russian.
The 2003 champion will now face world number one Roger Federer in the final. Youzhny claimed the first set on a tie-break after both players had broken each other.
Roddick had been irked by being asked to delay serve on a number of occasions by Youzhny in that set and responded by ripping through the second to love in just 22 minutes.
The third set proved a far cagier affair as both held serve throughout but Roddick eventually edged through in the tie-break.
The contest remained tight as it entered the fourth set but Roddick gained the crucial break in the eighth game.
Federer reached his sixth consecutive grand slam final as he closed in on a third straight US Open title.
The Swiss world number one and top seed made his semi-final victory over number seven Nikolay Davydenko of Russia look effortless as he swept into the final with a 6-1 7-5 6-4 win at Flushing Meadows.
Seventh seed Davydenko went into the second grand slam semi-final of his career with an unenviable record against the world number one, having lost on each of their seven prior meetings.
Their last meeting came in the Australian Open quarter-finals at the start of the year.
That match went to four sets, with the Russian winning the second set Down Under, and at Flushing Meadows Davydenko quickly knew he would have to go to at least as far if he was to spring the surprise of the year.
It took just 22 minutes for Federer to take the first set, as the Swiss star exploited Davydenko's obvious discomfort.
It was that ploy which carved open the first break of serve in the second game, drawing the Russian in on his backhand and forcing an error with a sliced drop shot which found the net.
Fatigue also seemed to be a factor, even at that early stage as the workaholic Davydenko, playing his 77th match of year, cut a tired-looking figure.
Davydenko then managed to hold serve to at least get on the scoreboard but he seemed to be suffering the effects of having fought back from two sets down to beat Tommy Haas on Thursday.
Federer broke again to go 5-1 up and served out the first set in 22 minutes.
Davydenko started the second set by upping the tempo on serve, and being rewarded for his hustle by holding the first game.
Federer was looking invincible on his serve and having dropped only six points on his serve in the first set, he continued in similar fashion with a win to love.
The Russian was beginning to show signs of life at last and added some power to his game. But the plan suffered a setback as Federer broke serve to take a 3-2 lead.
At 40-0 down in the next game, there were all the signs of a repeat of the first-set surrender, but Davydenko fought back and actually broke Federer to get back in the set.
It was only the sixth time in the tournament that Federer's serve had been broken and Davydenko was spurred on to hold on his own delivery in confident fashion.
When the Russian got into trouble serving at 4-4, he fought back again, saving a break point and going to advantage before having a game-winning point overturned on a challenge and then, finally, winning the game.
Federer, having gone close to a break in that game, made sure at 5-5. He set himself up to serve for the second set at 6-5 and a crunching forehand on his first set point made sure.
The match was within Federer's grasp not much later, as Davydenko was broken just three games into the third set.
Davydenko thought otherwise and forced a break back to get back to 3-3, but the top seed simply stepped up his performance and soon victory was within sight.
The Russian managed to save three match points, but Federer collected victory at the fourth time of asking to cap an efficient afternoon's work.
