NEWPORT (Rhode Island), July 15: Fabrice Santoro and Nicolas Mahut celebrated Bastille Day in style by setting up the first all-French final in the 31-year history of the Hall of Fame Championship on Saturday.

Fourth seed Santoro defeated South Africa's Wesley Moodie 7-6 (7-2), 6-3 after the fifth-seeded Mahut had come through 6-4, 6-7 (7-2), 6-2 against Belgium's Dick Norman to advance to Sunday's final.

Santoro moved into his first final since winning his fourth ATP title in Dubai in 2002.

ALMAGRO DOWNS MOYA

BASTAD (Sweden): Spaniard Nicolas Almagro reached the Swedish Open final on Saturday by taking his first win over compatriot Carlos Moya, 6-3, 1-6, 6-2.

The 21-year-old Almagro, who had lost his two previous meetings with the fourth seed, fired six aces past the Mallorcan and needed one hour 39 minutes to triumph.

Going into the match Moya, a winner here in 2002, had not dropped a set.

In the final Almagro takes on second seed David Ferrer, another Spaniard, who rapidly disposed of Italian fifth seed Filippo Volandri 6-2, 6-1.

SWISS OPEN

GSTAAD (Switzerland): French fifth seed Paul-Henri Mathieu downed Czech qualifier Radek Stepanek 6-3, 6-4 to set up a Swiss Open final against unheralded Italian Andreas Seppi.

Seppi, the world No 111, secured his first ATP final place earlier in the day with a 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 win over Russian wild card Igor Andreev.

Mathieu, the only seeded player to have reached the last four, broke Stepanek near the end of the first set and again midway through the second, each time relying on a fierce double backhand return.

The French world No 28 was never troubled on his own serve, quickly wrapping up his second win in three weeks over the Czech following last month's first-round meeting at Wimbledon.—Reuters