In the semi-finals played at the Olympic School Tennis courts here today, Istomin entered the second final in two weeks registering a 7-6(4), 7-5 win to end the challenge of unseeded Russian Konstantin Kravchuk in a 1hr 45 min match.

Istomin will take on 170th ranked Zopp who also made his second consecutive finals in as many week scored a rather one sided win over South African player Raven Klassen winning 6-3, 6-4 in 1 hr and 14 minutes.

Istomin who enjoyed his career best ranking of 39 at the same time last year, and making a strong bid to move into the top fifty again, after injury kept him out of action most of the clay season this year played a close set against Konstantin Kravchuk who served as many as 5 aces in the first set.

Istomin had 3 break points in the 6th game of the first set, Kravchuk fired two aces to hold on to his game. Istomin who will look to win his first Tashkent Challenger title, having fallen to Marcos Baghdatis in 2009 and fourth challenger win in a row, played high quality tennis in the tiebreak to win 7-4 and go up one set.

The second set saw Istomin hit three forehand down the line winners to break Karvchuk in the third game. Inspite of serving an ace Istomin found himself broken in the 8th game, allowing Kravchuk to level scores at 4-4.

In the 11th game Istomin changed his pace a little bit more than normal and moved up to the net forcing Kravchuk into errors, the Uzbek player's ploy saw him break Kravchuk again in the 11th game to go up 6-5. Istomin then held the 12th game at love finishing the match with a forehand volley and moving into the final.

"It was a closer match than the result suggests, I'm happy to reach the final and will go all out for a win at home," said Uzbek star Istomin. Kravchuk played well, but I played well when it mattered, he added. Kravchuk who enjoyed a wonderful week so far ended the event with US$6,275 and 45 ATP points.

Jurgen Zopp who fell to Yen-Hsun Lu of Taiwan in the finals at Ningbo Challenger in China last week also ensured himself a second consecutive final ending the winning run of giant killer Raven Klassen 6-3, 6-4 in 1 hr and 14 minutes.

In a match that saw 16 Aces been served, Zopp broke Klaasen early in the match in the 2nd game after some easy misses by the South African player and continued to hold on to win the set 6-3.

The second set went close till 4-4, Zopp played solidly from the baseline to break Kaasen in the 9th game. The Estonian then served two aces in the 10th game to hold on a win the second set 6-4 an d the match.

"I'm happy to have made two finals in a row and will try and do my best in the finals tomorrow," said Zopp after his win

Klassen partnering American John Paul Fruttero however had a bad day today. The favorites of the crowds here this week Klessen and Fruttero, went down to the pair of Harri Heliovaara of Finland and Denys Molchanov of Ukraine in the finals.

Heliovaara and Molchanov won 7-6(5), 7-6(3) to win the finals. The winners in the doubles took home $7,750 and 125 ATP points, while the runners-up had to be content with $4,500 and 75 ATP points

Following are the results:

Men Singles (Semi finals) :

Jurgen Zopp (EST) bt Raven Klaasen (RSA) 6-3, 6-4

S.2 Denis Istommin (UZB) bt Konstantin Kravchuk (RUS) 7-6(4), 7-5

Mens Doubles – final:

Harri Heliovaara/Denys Molchanov bt John Paul Fruttero (USA)/ Raven Klaasen (RSA) - 7-6(5), 7-6(3)