Blake, the third seed with titles this season in Adelaide, Las Vegas and Indianapolis, rallied to set up a Sunday showdown with the winner from Thai hero Paradorn Srichaphan and Croatian top seed Ivan Ljubicic.

The mercurial Safin smashed a racket at a heated moment in the second set as he was broken for the first time to drop to 2-3.

The former world No. 1 and two-time Grand Slam winner last played a final against Roger Federer at Halle, Germany, in June, 2005, just before a knee injury began to plague his game.

Safin, competing in his third semifinal of this comeback season, drew level at two-all with Blake, who also beat him last Sunday in a dead rubber at the Davis Cup semifinal tie in Moscow won by Russia.

"When he's on his best he can give everyone fits," said third-seed Blake, ninth in the world.

"I had to weather the storm. Often, you are at his mercy. I've had a few more matches than he has this season," said the American, 49-21 this season.

Safin, who has lifted his ranking from 104 during the summer to its current 55th after a knee injury, said he had no luck in the struggle lasting nearly two hours.

"It slipped away," said the 26-year-old. "I was up a break in the third and it slipped away, he broke back and then the tiebreak was a disaster.

"I was so close to being in the final. This is the third time this year it's happened like this for me.

"I wish I could break through that barrier."

Safin came up short as he aimed to defeat his seventh Top 10 opponent of the year.

Blake came good in his sixth semifinal of the season, now a perfect 6-0 at the last-four stage.

After winning the first set and successfully nullifying four break points, Safin began to fade when Blake broke in the fifth game of the second, going on to level the match on a third set point.

Safin against lost a break in the third set then turned in a forgettable tiebreaker to lose after saving a pair of match points before Blake put away the win.