On another baking hot sunny day that had earlier witnessed the unseeded Seppi edging past wildcard entrant Igor Andreev in an epic 2 hour slugfest that went the distance, 6-4 3-6 7-6(5), Mathieu handily dealt with the all-court tactics of his Czech opponent whom he had also beaten in the first round of Wimbledon three weeks earlier.

He broke the net rushing Czech in the eighth game of the opening set when Stepanek suddenly chose to serve and volley having dropped the opening point with a double fault. He was subsequently punished by Mathieu, who wasted no time in breaking with a magnificent backhand return pass that sped crosscourt past the incoming Czech for a clean winner.

With that break advantage, the Frenchman wrapped up the set in just 28 minutes, and then broke Stepanek in the fifth game of the second set with another brilliant crosscourt backhand return pass. Although he wobbled slightly in closing the match out on serve at 5-4, the Frenchman breathed a sigh of relief when Stepanek netted a forehand return on the third match point.

Although Stepanek's serve and volley tactics were questionable, Mathieu conceded that although it did give him a target, it did not guarantee that he would be able to find telling returns every time.

"If he is serving and volleying it doesn't mean that I am going to have an easy return", Mathieu said. "It's not easy to return his serve because the ball is bouncing very high, so when he is serving and vollying that puts me under more pressure because if I do a bad return he is going to have an easy volley. Maybe with this kind of pressure I returned better today. I returned good in two games, once in each set which was enough."

Earlier, the underrated Seppi's counterpunching skills came to the fore in the face of the brutal forehands with which Andreev attempted to batter him into submission. In what was considered to be an upset given the way the Russian had bundled defending champion Richard Gasquet out of the tournament yesterday, Mathieu, who will be the favourite,  nevertheless expects a tough test.

"The final is completely a different match", he said. "It will be really difficult; I just want to win tomorrow. It's going to be a really tough match. He has played good all week, so it's going to be interesting."

The Italian took the opening set after 39 minutes having broken in the seventh game with some exceptional hitting from the back, particularly a forehand drive that clipped Andreev's baseline for an outright winner. Seppi, who did not seem to be intimidated by the considerable forehand weaponry of his opponent, was matching Andreev shot for shot from the back of the court with his flatter drives.

The Russian levelled the match at a set all having achieved a single break of serve in the fourth game of the second set when he unleashed a monstrous forehand drive that forced the error from Seppi, who at full stretch sent his backhand wide.

The final set went all the way to the wire when neither man was able to achieve a break despite Seppi having a break point in the sixth game which Andreev snuffed out with a thunderous forehand winner.

When Andreev went ahead 3-1 in the breaker having rifled a superb backhand winner up the line that clipped the baseline, it looked as if he would progress to the final once again having lost to Roger Federer in the final of 2004.

However, it was not to be as costly unforced errors on his favourite forehand wing soon gave Seppi the upper hand. The Italian closed out the match on his second match point, winning the tiebreak 7-5 when Andreev sent his backhand return long.

The furious Russian who knew that he had squandered his opportunities to win the match promptly slammed down his racket into the ground with such force that all that was left of it was a mangled mess. A fitting picture of the last few minutes of his play.

Andre Jones

Roy Emerson Arena

Gstaad