Home hopes Marat Safin and Igor Kunitsyn were denied places in the final of the St Petersburg Open.

The two Russians fell in the semi-finals to leave Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky and Argentina's Horacio Zeballos to battle for the prize tomorrow.

Zeballos is seeded eighth after enjoying an impressive season on the challenger tour and had beaten Latvian Ernests Gulbis to reach the last four.

The first set went to a tie-break, Zeballos prevailing 9-7, and he capitalised on the only break point of the second set to wrap up a 7-6 (9-7) 6-3 win.

Safin's march past Richard Gasquet, Igor Andreev and Denis Istomin has been the story of the week and saw him to within two wins of a fairytale first title in four years, on home soil, just two weeks before his retirement.

Stakhovsky, though, had other ideas and broke twice to take the opening set 6-4.

Four aces helped Safin level matters at 1-1 and keep his dream alive but his opponent spoilt the party by taking his only break point of the final set to complete a 6-4 4-6 6-4 win.