Guillermo Canas will face Novak Djokovic in the final of the Sony Ericsson Open after registering his fifth consecutive victory over a seeded player this week, with a 7-5 6-2 victory over the big serving Croat Ivan Ljubicic.

Having qualified for this event, the 55^th ranked Argentine proceeded to eliminate Tim Henman, Juan Carlos Ferrero (19), Richard Gasquet (15), Roger Federer (1), Tommy Robredo (6) and now Ljubicic (7) to confound all pundits.

With the illustrious aforementioned opponents all vanquished, the 19 year old Serbian is all that stands between Canas and glory. The Argentine should he win on Sunday will surely go down in history as one of the most incredible comeback players of all time. His achievements here have been on par with that of Serena Williams here and at the Australian Open, when you consider that he only returned to full time competition 6 months ago after serving a 15 month suspension for taking an illegal diuretic. His rise into the higher echelons has been swift and dramatic which perhaps was a motivating factor for the Players Council to vote for the revocation of the wild card privilege to players returning from suspension. A result which Canas described as "stupid".

The key to Canas' victory over Ljubicic is illustrated perfectly by the break point conversion statistic. Ljubicic 0/7 and Canas 3/3.

With Canas serving at 2-3, the Croat had three break points at 0-40 but could not take them as the plucky Argentine as he did against Roger Federer in the fourth round, dug deep and kept the ball in play, forcing his opponent into error at the end of the punishing rallies.

Ljubicic paid the penalty for not converting on those break point opportunities when serving at 5-5 and break point down, the scurrying Argentine chased down a lob and rifled a forehand pass down the line for an outright winner as his flag waving fans erupted with sheer ecstasy. Their man was ahead; and how!

"In that game I return very well", Canas said. "I just try to put the pressure on his side. When I have a chance, I go to the net a lot today, and that game I did. I finish with an unbelievable passing shot."

Canas closed out the 51 minute set to 30 with a perfect length forehand approach to the Ljubicic backhand which the Croat at full stretch floated wide.

The second set saw an almost total capitulation by the Croat after failing yet again to convert break point chances in Canas' opening service game.

Serving at 2-2, Ljubicic conceded his serve with a forehand into the net, and after failing on his seventh break point opportunity in Canas' next service game, the Croat lost his serve again to leave the Argentine serving for the match.

Canas sailed into the second Masters Series final of his career, serving it out to love as a mishit Ljubicic forehand drive failed to find the court.

A less than gracious Ljubicic felt that the windy conditions had given Canas some advantage.

"He's just pushing the ball in the middle of the court, and you have to do everything", Ljubicic complained. "When it's windy like this, it's not easy to go for the big shots. I think these conditions here suit his game perfectly."

Ljubicic who had voted at the Players Council meeting to prevent players returning from suspension from receiving wildcards to enter tournaments, explained his reasons.

"I feel like giving the wildcards to the guys coming off doping offence, means helping them to come back, which I don't feel is right. The guys were cheating on us, and I don't think we should help them to come back, simple as that."

Canas takes a different view.

"I disagree with Ivan", he said. "He think very different than what I think. I don't want to talk about it. For me I think I said two days ago, it's stupid.

"You paid before, and I think that this one is another suspension if you don't receive wildcards for anybody that has a suspension for doping. I think it's stupid from my point of view."

Looking ahead to his final with Djokovic over 5 sets, the Argentine believes that he has a chance.

"I think it's going to be very tough for me. But really I feel very confident in my game. I know that if I play well, I have a chance to beat him.

"I feel very great physically; I know I'm prepared to play five sets. I did feel tired today because I played a lot of matches these two weeks, but I have a day off, and I'm going to be ready for the Sunday match."