ANDY Murray will face Novak Djokovic in the final of the BNP Paribas Paris Masters today after the Scot's attacking approach paid off against David Ferrer.
It will be the seventh meeting between the two in 2015, with Murray's only success coming in the Rogers Cup final in Toronto in August.
Murray continued his fine form by beating the Spaniard 6-4, 6-3 before Djokovic came through 6-3, 3-6, 6-0 against Stan Wawrinka.
Having come through a tough examination against Richard Gasquet quarter-finals, Murray was again on top of his game from the start.
He raced to three break points in the opening game before securing the break at the second attempt – a pattern he has repeated throughout the tournament.
However, after taking a 3-1 lead, Murray began to make mistakes as Ferrer dug in in trademark fashion. He forced Murray into an error on the volley before firing into his feet at break point to draw level.
The No 8 seed could have gone ahead after a superb lob gave him three break points in the following game, but Murray found his range when it mattered with a series of searing groundstrokes.
An ace eventually saved the game and he went on to claim the first set with a break to love.
The pair traded blows in the second set, but Murray reeled off five games in a row to take it 6-3 and seal his place in a 16th Masters final, and his first in the French capital.
Murray, who has the ATP Tour finals and Britain's David Cup final against Belgium coming up, said: "I think I played aggressive tennis and used the net well. I came forward and was successful at the net.
"There were a couple of periods in the match where I made mistakes, but when you're trying to play high-risk tennis that can happen.
"I thought that was a pretty good match apart from a few periods when I was making errors."
If he wins the final, Murray is set to finish the season as world No 2 – a feat he has never achieved. He said: "It will be nice as it's the highest I've ever finished, but I've still got the Davis Cup to look forward to."
Djokovic exacted a measure of revenge on Wawrinka, the Swiss having been the only man to defeat the world No 1 in a Grand Slam event this year, in the French Open final at Roland Garros five months ago.
The meeting with Murray is the Serb's 14th successive final and victory would earn him a 10th title of the season.
Wawrinka had sipped coffee during a gruelling quarter-final against Rafael Nadal that finished in the early hours of Saturday morning and he appeared fatigued against Djokovic early on.
The Serb broke early to claim a 3-1 lead and did not face a single break point in cruising to a first-set success.
The second set appeared to be following a similar script when Djokovic claimed another early advantage but when the Serb was serving to go 3-1 up, a jaded Wawrinka drank from a bottle of water near the advertising hoardings and rallied with back-to-back breaks, the first coming at the fifth attempt to go 4-2 up.
He then fought back from 15-40 down on his own serve to win a fifth successive game before serving to love to level the match at one set apiece.
Djokovic returned in emphatic fashion in the last-set decider, though, as Wawrinka ran out of steam.
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