James Blake scored a convincing 6-4, 6-3 win over Belgian Olivier Rochus at the Stockholm Open on Saturday, setting up a final with Thai Paradorn Srichaphan [Images], who struggled past Italian Davide Sanguinetti.

"I played my best tennis when he had me on the edge," said the American sixth seed, who came from a break down in the first set and blasted 17 aces past Rochus to avenge his straight sets loss to the Belgian in the Davis Cup last month, their only previous meeting.

"I'm learning to have a short memory, forget about matches like that one and just focus on the positives. He played unbelievable tennis that whole weekend," he said, referring to the Davis Cup match.

Blake is bidding for his third career title after winning in Washington in 2002 and in Long Island earlier this year, but the Stockholm final will be his first ATP final outside the United States.

Rochus got the better start in the match and broke Blake for 4-2 before the American found his groove and grabbed five games in a row, clinching the first set on his way 6-4 with a second serve ace.

BROKEN SPELL

Blake broke Rochus in the fifth game of second set and went on to hold serve, saving break points at 3-2 and again at 4-3 with excellent serving and thunderous forehand winners.

He needed just one match point on the Rochus serve at 5-3 to finish it off, forcing the Belgian to hit into the net.

In the second round Blake had fought his way back to beat his opponent's brother Christophe Rochus in a dramatic three-setter.

"It's pretty memorable, to beat these two brothers in the same tournament," said Blake with a smile. "I don't know if anyone has done that before. Olivier must have had a pretty good report from his brother."

The win was Blake's 20th in his last 24 matches. He reached the U.S Open quarter-finals in September, losing an epic five-set battle to eventual finalist Andre Agassi [Images].

Paradorn battled back from the brink of defeat to beat Sanguinetti 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 and finally broke the Italian's spell on him, having lost all four previous encounters with Sanguinetti.

The Thai, conqueror of top seed and defending champion Thomas Johansson in the quarter-finals, struggled to cope with the flat and slow-paced shots of Sanguinetti, who served for the match at 5-3 in the second set.

But Paradorn started to find his winning shots at the last moment and staged a great comeback to clinch the set.

He was broken in the opening game in the deciding set but broke back and then took a firm grip on the match, serving it out 6-3.

"It would mean a lot to me to win the title again," said Paradorn, who has won five ATP titles including one here in 2002.

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