Chris Haggard and Ivo Karlovic ousted defending Memphis doubles titlists Simon Aspelin and Todd Perry on Saturday afternoon, converting on their third match point to secure their berth in the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships final.

The South African-Croatian duo took the break to go up 5-3 in the second set before proceeding to serve out the set and level the match at a set apiece. In the Match Tie-break, Haggard only needed to hold his serves to clinch the victory, but the second seeds came back from a 5-8 deficit to win the next three points.

Karlovic and Haggard promptly turned around to secure a match point, but the towering Croat - who is second on the circuit with number of aces fired this season - double-faulted. The tandem missed another opportunity on their second match point before finally wrapping up the win, 4-6, 6-3, 12-10 (Match TB)

The 5'10" Haggard and 6'10" Karlovic are appearing in their first tournament as a team, but have both found success earlier this year with different partners. Haggard partnered Aspelin to reach the Adelaide semifinals and countryman Wesley Moodie to reach the Delray Beach final. Karlovic reached the Australian Open quarterfinals with Jan Hernych and the Zagreb semifinals with fellow Croat Lovro Zovko.

Said Haggard on the new partnership: "He's got the best serve in tennis and I make a lot more balls and I hit it differently so I think we're a very unusual team. It's tough for the other teams to get a rhythm with us. He's got a good attitude and he's a nice guy, and I feel good on the court with him."

The duo will face Americans James Blake and Mardy Fish in Sunday's final. The pair scored a walkover in their highly-anticipated semifinal clash with Bob and Mike Bryan after the World No. 1 team was forced to withdraw due to Bob's sore shoulder.

Blake and Fish, who received wild card entry into the tournament, are 20-12 as a team and won the 2004 San Jose title and the 2004 Houston title. They saved two match points in their Match Tie-break against Justin Gimelstob and Stephen Huss in Friday's quarterfinal.

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Chris Haggard