Home favourite Daniil Medvedev reached his fifth consecutive final on Saturday by beating Belarusian Egor Gerasimov in the last four of the ATP event in Saint Petersburg.
The 23-year-old top seed won 7-5, 7-5 against the world number 119 to continue his excellent form which also saw him lose an epic US Open final to Rafael Nadal earlier this month.
Medvedev, the world number four, broke in the 11th games of each set and will face Croatia’s Borna Coric in Sunday’s final.
The 15th-ranked Coric beat Portugal’s Joao Sousa 3-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-1.
It was the third straight match that Coric had won from a set down.
“I don’t like (losing the first set), either. I would love to be in two sets. Maybe one day, hopefully it’s going to come,” he said.
The fourth seed was facing defeat late in the second set, but he saved three break points in the 11th game to secure a tie-break, which he won before racing through the deciding set.