Blake v Andreev in ATP Sydney Final

Eighth-seeded James Blake extended his winning streak over Nikolay Davydenko, the No.2 seed, to four matches on Friday for a place in the Medibank International final where he will play another Russian Igor Andreev.

While Blake defeated Davydenko, 6-4, 6-2 in one hour and 23 minutes, Andreev needed to overcome a frustrating three-hour rain delay to knock out Italian qualifier Andreas Seppi 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 for a place in his seventh ATP final.

The 22-year-old is also the first Russian in 17 years to reach the Sydney title-match.

The players scurried off the court with Andreev leading Seppi 6-2, 2-5 when the heavens opened. Upon their return, world number 60 Seppi broke Andreev?s serve immediately for the second set.

But there was to be no repeat of Thursday's comeback when Seppi snapped four-time champion Lleyton Hewitt's 23-match winning streak at the Sydney International Tennis Centre.

Andreev grabbed two early service breaks to runaway with the third set for a two-hour one-minute win.

Andreev will play Blake in his first hard court final on Saturday, after the American thumped Davydenko with punishing returns throughout his semifinal win.

Davydenko started the match confidently and held a 4-2 lead in the first set but thereafter was unable to hold his own service.

Blake responded with four games on the trot for the first set in 40 minutes and, despite dropping his opening service game in the second, returns proved too much for the Russian ranked No. 6 in the INDESIT ATP Ranking.

Davydenko converted only three of 11 break points, while Blake converted six out of nine break points. Blake fired down seven aces to just the one ace by Davydenko. (ATP)