Experienced Frenchman Arnaud Clement [ Images ] and British teenager Andy Murray [ Images ] roared into the Legg Mason Classic final with straight-sets victories in Washington on Saturday.

Clement needed two hours to outduel former world number one Marat Safin [ Images ] 7-6, 7-6, while Murray eased past Russian Dmitry Tursunov [ Images ] 6-2, 7-5 to reach his second final of the year.

The 11th-seeded Clement traded crisp groundstrokes with the power-hitting Safin, each player losing his service only twice in the match. Safin opened the door for the Frenchman by getting only 58 percent of his first serves in.

A costly double-fault by Safin in the first-set tiebreak gave Clement a 6-5 lead. Clement won the set on the next point when the Russian punched a forehand volley into the net.

"I had a couple of double faults at important moments," said Safin, who served nine aces but five double faults. "I haven't been in the semi-finals in a long time. I got nervous."

The 28-year-old Clement, ranked 57th and searching for his fourth career title, won the second-set tiebreak 7-4, securing a mini-break to take a 5-4 lead before serving out the match.

Safin, ranked 92 in the world and unseeded in Washington, had leads of 3-1 in the first set and 4-2 in the second before Clement battled back.

"This kind of match was disappointing," Safin told reporters. "It just slipped away. I had my chances."

Murray, seeded eighth in his first week playing under new coach Brad Gilbert, won five straight games to turn a 1-0 deficit in the first set into a 5-1 advantage.

In the second set, Tursunov had the 19-year-old Scot down 5-2 but the Russian did not win another game. Murray broke seventh seeded Tursunov in the 11th game to take a 6-5 lead and closed out the 84-minute match.

Murray had his serve broken only once despite blasting only one ace and getting just 45 percent of his first serves in.

"It's not a huge problem on these courts because my second serve is good enough not to be attacked," said Murray, who won a tournament in San Jose in February.

"In my first match I served 13 aces, and in my last three I've served only five total."

Murray and Clement have met only once before, a five-setter won by Clement at last year's US Open [ Images ].

"He doesn't do anything spectacular but he doesn't do anything badly," Murray said of Clement. "I think all of his shots are very good. So it's going to be a tough match."