Taylor Dent moved through to his second career ATP final with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over fellow American Vincent Spadea at the Kroger St. Jude in Memphis.
Dent, who won the title in Newport last July, needed 1 hour, 14 minutes to book his berth in Sunday's final against either top seed Andy Roddick or Brian Vahaly.

"It's very nice to be in another final," said Dent. "Just winning matches is unbelievable and getting a chance to win the title is great. I'm pretty confident, but every day is different. In the first two matches I didn't feel like I could miss a serve, and in the last two I didn't feel like I could miss a volley. I wasn't really thinking about [getting to the final] that much. I was just trying to play my best tennis and with a little bit of luck I got through."

The 21-year-old from Newport Beach, California served 11 aces and got 52 percent of his first serves in against Spadea, who was appearing in his first semifinal since Tokyo last year.

"My serve needs to be around 70 percent and the last two matches it's been around 50 percent, but I've backed it up well with my second serve and my volleys," said Dent. "He wasn't getting any of his first serves in during the first set, but he played a lot better in the second and it could easily have gone to a tie-break and possibly a third set."

Chances

Dent, who defeated Mark Philippoussis, No. 5 seed Jan-Michael Gambill and Vladimir Voltchkov to reach the semifinals, saved all four of the break points against him, while Spadea, who got just 41 percent of his first serves in during the first set, was broken three times during the match.

Spadea, who was looking to win his first career title this week, said: "It's basically a hard serving contest with Taylor and I didn't do that very well today. I wasn't aggressive with my serving mentality in the first set. I was a little bit better in the second and if I had started like that, maybe I could have given myself more of a chance.

"I had opportunities [in the first game of the second set] but he came up with aces on the break points. He's serving 105 mph second serves, and if he can do that, then why not? He's also backing it up with solid volleys."

Chicken Pox

Despite the disappointment, Spadea was satisfied to reach the semifinals on the back of a quarterfinal run in San Jose last week.

"Last month I had chicken pox in Australia," said Spadea. "I sat in bed for two weeks during the Australian Open so I didn't get any exercise and just had a few days during the Davis Cup week to prepare for San Jose and Memphis. So given the circumstances, I've had two solid weeks and I've done a good job keeping my energy and sharpness."

Looking ahead to the final, Dent added: "It's going to be tough no matter who I play. Andy obviously feels comfortable here. He is going to be serving bombs if I play against him."

Dent has never played either Roddick or Vahaly on the ATP circuit.