Auckland tennis champion David Ferrer will face world number two Novak Djokovic for the Paris Masters title after the Spaniard produced one of his finest performances to edge world number one and compatriot Rafael Nadal 6-3 7-5 in the semi-finals.
Ferrer keeps alive his hopes of being the first player to retain the crown after the third seed dominated Nadal from the first point to the last at the indoor event.
2009 champion Djokovic defeated Roger Federer 4-6 6-3 6-2 in a battle of former world number ones, despite struggling to control the brilliant Swiss early on.
The Serb needs to win the tournament to entertain his slim chance to reclaim the ATP top spot by the end of the year.
Federer unsettled Djokovic by attacking the net as often as possible and hitting some sharp groundstrokes early on but the 17-times grand slam champion lost the initiative after errors began to creep into his game and he also struggled with his serve.
Djokovic broke Federer's serve a second time to lead 4-2 and he carried the momentum through the deciding set.
Djokovic says the key was just to hang in there and stay with him
Both players will meet again next week at the ATP World Tour Finals in London after they were drawn in the same round-robin group.
