Defending champion Nicolas Escude survived three match points Saturday, and came back to defeat fellow French tennis star Sebastien Grosjean in the semi-finals of the World Indoor Tournament in Rotterdam (Netherlands).

Unseeded Escude dropped the first set 4-6 before taking a second set tie-breaker 7-1, then winning the deciding set 7-5 over the number four seed after falling behind on his own serve.

Escude will face number six Tim Henman of Britain Sunday in the final after Henman beat unseeded Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia, 7-5, 6-4.

Meanwhile in Memphis, Tennessee, second seed Lisa Raymond bounced back from five match points down in a third-set tie-breaker to beat number four Alexandra Stevenson, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6. The tie-breaker between the two Americans was extended to 11-9 before Raymond earned her third career title.

On the men's side, number two Andy Roddick will face eighth seed James Blake Sunday in just the 11th all-American final on the tour in five years, and only the third to not include either Pete Sampras or Andre Agassi.

Roddick beat fourth seed Xavier Malisse of Belgium 6-7, 6-3, 6-3 on Saturday, while Blake downed unseeded fellow-American Jan-Michael Gambill 6-4, 7-6.

In other tennis news, Chile's Nicolas Massu meets Agustin Calleri of host Argentina Sunday in the finals of the Buenos Aires Open.

Massu downed Feliciano Lopez of Spain on Saturday, 7-6, 6-2, while Calleri won the other semi-final by defeating another player from Argentina, Juan Chela, 6-4, 6-4. None of the four was seeded after such stars as Gustavo Kuerten, Marcelo Rios and Nicolas Lapentti were ousted early in the tournament.

Some information for this report provided by Reuters and AP.

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