Argentine pair in Stuttgart final
 |  Canas will play his third Stuttgart Cup final on Sunday. |
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STUTTGART, Germany -- Guillermo Canas reached the final of the clay-court ATP Stuttgart Cup for the third time in four years with a 3-6 6-1 6-2 win over Nikolay Davydenko.
The final will be an all-Argentine affair following French Open champion Gaston Gaudio's 6-3 5-7 6-4 win over Spain's David Ferrer.
The unseeded Canas won comfortably in the end but only after his 15th-seeded Russian opponent had undergone treatment for exhaustion after taking the first set.
"In the middle of the second set I could see he was tired," said Canas, who was beaten in the final by Mikhail Youzhny in 2001 and Gustavo Kuerten in 2002.
"I tried hard to make use of it."
Second seed Gaudio needed almost two-and-a-half hours and seven match points to beat the 11th-seeded Ferrer.
"I had a lot of chances but I couldn't use them," said Gaudio. "I'm finished, beat up. I was lucky to win it."
Meanwhile at the Dutch Open in Amersfoort home favorite Martin Verkerk sprung an upset with a 6-3 6-7 6-3 win over top seed and defending champion Nicolas Massu of Chile.
"I can't play much better tennis than this," said Verkerk. "My forehand was good, my serves were consistent, and my returns were also reasonably good."
But Chilean second seed Fernando Gonzalez scored revenge over the home nation by winning his semifinal against Dennis van Scheppingen 7-6 6-4.
Former world number one Marcelo Rios has retired at the age of 28 due to back injury.The Chilean reached the top of the rankings for six weeks in 1998, becoming the first South American to do so. He won 18 singles titles on the ATP circuit.
