John Isner of the United States and Arnaud Clement of France will contest the singles final after continuing to wipe out the seeded players at the Auckland tournament yesterday.
But they may take second billing in the eyes of spectators as Marcus Daniell tries to become the first New Zealander to win an ATP tour title since 1999.
The Wairarapa 20-year-old's giant-killing run in the doubles continued yesterday as he and Horia Tecau of Romania beat Johan Brunstrom of Sweden and Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands Antilles 3-6 7-6 10-8.
Daniell had been expecting to be at the Big Day Out yesterday but had to give them up to take centre stage at Auckland.
He continued to bely his doubles ranking of 670, holding his nerve in two pressure tiebreaks on Wednesday and yesterday to put himself into the final against Brazilians Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares.
"It's completely unexpected to be here but after two matches it's so tight and we got through and I don't think I'll have any problems with nerves tomorrow," Daniell said.
Isner and Clement are both unseeded but both have knocked out three seeded players on their path to the final.
Isner's huge serve was too much for eighth seed Albert Montanes yesterday. Montanes easily lost the first set 6-2 but won some crowd support as he took Isner on in the second set before falling 7-5 in a tiebreak.
Clement was inspired against fifth seed Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany, not conceding a break point as he took the match 6-3 7-5.
They promise a contrasting final, with Clement looking to find a way to break Isner's serve and Isner trying to counter the Frenchman's precision.
