The lone Swede remaining in the field, Norman rallied to defeat unseeded Christophe Rochus of Belgium, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5. After dropping only 10 games in his first two matches, he survived a match point at 4-5 in the third seed and needed two hours, three minutes to finally put away Rochus.

Norman snapped a five-matching losing streak with a 6-2, 6-1 first-round victory over Argentina's Mariano Puerta, then dispatched Australia's Andrew Illie, 6-4, 6-3, in the second round.

Prior to this tournament, Norman had lost eight of nine matches and withdrew from Wimbledon two weeks ago with a hip injury. He is winless in two finals after winning five tournaments last year.

Standing in Norman's path to another appearance in the final here is fifth-seed Bohdan Ulihrach of the Czech Republic, who won a third-set tiebreaker to outlast Albert Portas of Spain, 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (7-4).

"He killed me in a Davis Cup match a few months ago, so I'm eager for revenge," Norman said. "He's playing well, but is going to fight hard if he wants to beat me tomorrow."

Ulihrach rallied from a 3-5 deficit in the third set to reach his third semifinal of 2001.

Saturday's other semifinals pits Morocco's Younes El Aynaoui against Italy's Andrea Gaudenzi.

El Aynaoui, who celebrated the birth of his second child on July 2, advanced with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Michal Tabara of the Czech Republic, while Gaudenzi defeated Spanish teenager Tommy Robredo, 7-5, 4-6, 6-3