Daniil Medvedev reached his fifth straight ATP final with victory over Belarusian qualifier Egor Gerasimov in the semi-finals of the St Petersburg Open.
The 23-year-old's 7-5 7-5 win makes him the first player since Novak Djokovic last year to achieve the feat after his successful run on the US hard-court swing.
In his first tournament since falling in the US Open final to Rafael Nadal, Medvedev delighted the home fans who are waiting for the first Russian winner since Mikhail Youzhny in 2004.
Medvedev secured the crucial break in the 11th game of the first set and after the pair had swapped early breaks in the second, repeated the feat to book a final against Croatia's Borna Coric.
In contrast, Coric reached his first final of the year with a 3-6 7-6 (5) 6-1 win over Portugal's Joao Sousa.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga kept alive his hopes of becoming the first four-time winner of the Moselle Open after squeezing past Lucas Pouille in Metz.
The 34-year-old's 7-6 (6) 7-6 (4) win behind a solid first serve sent him into the final at the tournament for the fifth time.
Tsonga will face Slovenian Aljaz Bedene who hit back from behind to beat third seed Benoit Paire 4-6 6-1 6-2 and deny the crowd an all-French final.
Paire had the better of the opening set but began to make mistakes in the second and Bedene capitalised to race to victory in just over one and a half hours.
