The Croatian showed why he was seeded number one at this tournament, demolishing local hero Paradorn Srichapham 6-3, 6-2 in a semi-final encounter on Saturday lasting just 67 minutes. Ljubicic served his 17th ace to seal the match against the Thai.
Ljubicic, the world number three, is now close to clinching a place in November's season-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai behind Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
The 27-year-old Ljubicic faces Blake, the world number nine, who earlier denied Marat Safin his first tournament final in more than a year after staging a comeback to win 3-6, 6-4,7-6 (7-3).
Ljubicic has now won five in a row over Paradorn, who staged a miracle recovery in the quarter-finals to beat Tim Henman from 5-2 down in the final set. Paradorn was competing in a second straight semi-final after achieving the last four at Beijing.Blake, winner in Adelaide, Las Vegas and Indianapolis, withstood the Safin firestorm. The mercurial Russian smashed a racket at a heated moment in the second set as he was broken for the first time to drop to 2-3.
The former world number one and two-time Grand Slam winner last played a final against Federer at Halle, Germany, in June, 2005, just before a knee injury began to plague his game.
Results:
Semi-finals: 1-Ivan Ljubicic (Croatia) beat 8-Paradorn Srichaphan (Thailand) 6-3, 6-2; 3-James Blake (US) beat Marat Safin (Russia) 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3).—Agencies