The No. 8 seed Max Mirnyi served a total of 11 aces in his 7-5, 6-3 victory over No. 2 seed Tommy Haas. The 26- year-old German got off to a great start by breaking Mirnyi’s serve in the opening game of the match and quickly seemed in control with a 5-3 lead. Serving for the set at 5-4, Haas came back from 0-40 to deuce but was unable to hold.

From then on, Mirnyi took control of the match with his aggressive style and broke Haas’ serve again at 6-5 to win the first set in 46 minutes. Mirnyi continued to attack the net in the second set and converted his second break point of the set at 3-2. He kept his strong serving with a total of 11 aces to finish the match in 1 hour, 25 minutes.

Mirnyi is now 1-7 against Haas and entered the third ATP final of his career. Both players won over 70 percent of their service points in a match that had just four break points.

Kenneth Carlsen reached the finals with a walkover after Andy Roddick was forced out of the tournament with a left ankle sprain he suffered during Friday’s quarterfinal win over Robby Ginepri.

This is the just the second time Carlsen has advanced with a walkover, with his only previous walkover coming in the second round in Jakarta in 1995 when he advanced after Sander Groen was sidelined with injury. Roddick has never before not advanced because of a walkover, although he has retired from a match on four occasions in his career.

WHAT THE PLAYERS SAID:

Mirnyi: ?Historically, Tommy is a very quick player. He does play very hard and quick from the beginning. Certainly he took advantage of my slow start today. I committed some unforced errors with serve, enough for him to get that break. I was fortunate to get that break back in the first set, but I wasn't going to go away and I was still going to look for my opportunity.?

?I've believe that I've played very good competitive tennis here over the course of this week. I'm certainly looking forward to getting another match under my belt tomorrow and coming away with the title. It's still a long way away. I have to play, with the way I've been playing, one point at a time.

(On Carlsen not playing a semifinal match) ?It's a little unusual to get a walkover into the finals. I don't really think it makes any difference. We've both played a lot of tennis leading up to this point. Tomorrow it's just going to come down to whoever plays better and who can execute their shots.?

Roddick: "If it was something that I knew it was hurting but wasn't going to get any worse, then I'd give it a go. But when you risk it being a four or five day sprain and something goes wrong and you turn it into a two or three week sprain?especially with Davis Cup around the corner and representing my country there. Since it has the potential to get worse I'm really kind of conscious of that and that was reall a big factor.?

?If it was just pain, that's one thing, but if it has the potential to get worse and do long-term kind of damage, those are two different things. If it's just pain, I can get through it.?

?You woke up and you don't know if it's just stiffness or what it kind of is. I was a little more optimistic this morning when I woke up. The more I walked around on it, the worse it was. Then I tried to jog a little bit before practice, that didn't go over too well. Then I tried to hit a couple, and the first really kind of significant move I made, I just knew that it wasn't going to happen for me.?

Haas: "I think it's the style of play Max has, anytime you play somebody like that it's going to be tough to get rhythm, to feel comfortable. I think I started off well, especially to break him in the first game, everything seemed to be under control.And then played not a great game at 5-4. He made me play, I made a few unforced errors, came back to deuce and felt like I didn't serve quite as well as I did last match, and I think I needed that today. That gave him some confidence.?

?I tried to come back again. I saved two match points at 5-2, and last week when I was playing against him he served for the match as well. I though maybe, ?C'mon, let's try to see if he thinks about that again.?

Carlsen: ?At least I'm in the final now, but if I played and won I think that would have been better for me. Then you havethe match played and you have the same routine. Kind of depends as well how long that match would have been. There's good and bad things in both ways.?

(On learning of the walkover) ?I was preparing to play. I was kind of amazed I wasn't going to play. He was able to win yesterday. Of course, the day after, when it gets cold after you play, it must have been worst than maybe he thought it was going to be.?

(On why he retired in his only previous meeting with Mirnyi) ?It happened during the match, I pulled my hip. Knock on wood that's not going to happen again.?

(On playing Mirnyi) ?He's been playing very well this year, and even at the end of last year. He has a lot of confidence. The way he plays, when he gets confident, with his big serves and he comes into the net as much as possible he tries to stretch the opponent and put as much pressure on the opponent as possible.?

THE PLACE TO BE….. Feb. 11 – 20 ….. is The Racquet Club of Memphis. Ten days of world class tennis awaits you. Help serve an ace to the players, the Memphis community, and the children of St. Jude by purchasing tickets to the always-exciting event.

To purchase your tickets and receive additional information, call Carolyn Hicks at 901.685.ACES or visit the tournament website www.atptennis.com/MEMPHIS/