Henman will now play Andrei Pavel in Sunday's final after the Romanian continued his fairytale run with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 win over Czech 14th seed Jiri Novak.

The 29-year-old Pavel only discovered he was playing in the event last Friday but he has responded to the call in staggering fashion winning four matches here this week having previously won just three on the tour in the entire year.

He missed six months of the season through a combination of back and wrist injuries and saw his world ranking slump to 191.

Henman, who lost to the 21-year-old Roddick in the first round of the US Open having beaten him on the way to the title in Washington earlier in the summer, needed six match points to clinch victory.

It gave him a place in only his second final of the season, a campaign which has seen both his confidence and ranking slip as he recovered from a shoulder injury.

"The job's not done yet. It's a big day on Sunday but if I play the same style of game that I'm playing, then I have a good chance," said 29-year-old Henman who knocked out Wimbledon champion Roger Federer in the quarterfinals and is looking for his 11th career title.

"I look at when I was at my highest ranking, I played some pretty good tennis. But if I play the tennis I'm capable of for longer periods, then I don't think number four in the world will be my highest ranking."

US Open champion Roddick lost his opening service game for the first time this week to give Henman the early edge and the normally brash American remained subdued with his big serve misfiring.

"I was getting a lot of balls back and that had a negative effect on him because there weren't many cheap points for him," said Henman.

Roddick refused to be downcast by defeat.

"I felt I was in the match the whole way but he came up with the goods. I needed to serve a lot better because he puts a lot of pressure on you off the return.

"It's a shame I couldn't have saved some of my serving from the earlier matches for today," added Roddick who had only faced two break points in his three previous matches going into the semi-final.