ATLANTA. Georgia. May 4: Seventh seed Jason Stoltenberg avoided the fate of his fellow seeds by holding off upset-

minded Swede Magnus Norman to reach the final of the AT and T Challenge against Marcelo Filippini of Uruguay, reports Reuter.

Norman had picked off the highest remaining seed in his two previous matches, but failed in his bid for a hattrick as the seventh-seeded Australian prevailed 6-4, 5-7, 6-3.

Filippini. ranked 92nd in the world, upset eighth-seeded American Chirs Woodruff 7-5, 3-6. 6-4 in the longest match of the tournament at two hours and 22 minutes.

In a tournament that featured American stars Michael Chang, Jim Courier and Andre ■ Agassi, organisers are surely shocked by a Stoltenberg-Filip-pini final. But the top six seeds were eliminated before the semifinals, with 81 st-ranked Norman taking care of Agassi (4) and Petr Korda (5).

Stoltenberg took advantage of Norman's relative inexperience. using his penetrating forehand to score key breaks in winning the first set.

Norman, 20 and coolly confident. rebounded from a 1-3 deficit to take the second set 7-5 when Stoltenberg made a rare forehand error.

Stoltenberg, winner of two career clay titles in the United States, regained the edge in the

third set, winning the match by breaking Norman with a backhand return up the line.

"It was an up and down match but I'm proud of the way I hung in there," Stoltenberg said.

"I gusted it out and that's exactly what I needed at this stage of my comeback." added Stoltenberg, who had wrist surgery in January.

Woodruff’s fortunes turned at 4-4 in the first set when a drop shot bounced on the net-cord and fell back on his side, wiping out a break point and a chance to serve for the set.

Instead it was Filippini. hitting consistently from the baseline, who broke for the set at 7-5.

Woodruff got a quick break at the start of the second set and seemed to take charge, breaking Filippini again to level the match.

The American grabbed a 2-1 in the third set before suddenly

losing focus in strong winds and changing light conditions as the sun appeared and disappeared behind clouds.

Filippini won 12 straight points to take a 4-2 lead before Woodruff recovered, but it was too late to salvage the match.

Woodruff saved two match points at 5-3. but Filippini made good on the third with a backhand winner on the line.

"Between 2-1 in the third set and the end of the match I stopped complaining about the wind and started concentrating more." said Filippini, who will go for his fourth career title on clay Sunday.

Woodruff refused to blame his lapses on the difficult conditions. "The problems were more in my head than anything else." he said.

"It took me a while to believe I could play with a true clay courier. I got off to a bad start and I was hanging in there after that."