Guillermo Coria crushed a brave Tim Henman challenge while Gaston Gaudio outclassed countryman David Nalbandian to reach the French Open final and set up the first ever all-Argentine Grand Slam title showdown.

Third-seeded Coria came back from losing his first set of these championships to shatter Henman's dream of becoming the first British man to reach the Roland Garros final in 67 years with a 3-6, 6-4,6-0,7-5 victory.

Unseeded Gaudio, meanwhile, breezed past eighth-seeded Nalbandian 6-3, 7-6, 6-0 to also bookhis first ever Grand Slam final.

Sunday's final will see the first Argentine champion here since Guillermo Vilas in 1977.

Coria, the title favourite, also had to come from 2-4 down in the second set, to record his 48th win in his last 50 matches on clay.

From that low point in the second set of their semifinal, Coria reeled off 13 games in a row to set up the platform for his first ever Grand Slam final appearance.

But he had to put down a brief

Henman fightback in the fourth set before he made sure of victory in 2hr47min.

For ninth seed Henman, trying to become the first British man to make the final here since Bunny Austin in 1937, it was another sorry tale of what might have been as the 29-year-old fell to defeat for the fifth time in a Grand Slam semifinal.

"The final will be a really big occasion," said Coria who holds a 3-1 career lead over his compatriot.

"He has a lot of experience but I am really happy to be in the final. It has been my dream since I was a child.

"It's a historic moment for Argentina but it will probably be a long match."

For 29-year-old Henman, it was the fifth time in his career that he had lost a Grand Slam semi-final but he came close to a famous win.

Having lost those 13 games in a row, he rallied to lead 5-4 and even served for the fourth set to level the match but he was unable to crack the quicksilver Coria.

"I wanted a fifth set but couldn't go there," said the ninth seed.

"Who knows what could have happened if I could have played it undermyterms."

The 25-year-old Gaudio, play-

ing in his first Grand Slam semifinal in 21 attempts, went into the match as underdog to his 22-year-old compatriot who had beaten both Marat Safin and Gustavo Kuerten, both former Grand Slam winners, on his way to the last four.

But it was Gaudio who took command from the start under cool, cloudy conditions on a halfempty Philippe Chatrier Centre-Court.

"This is a great day for me. It's my favourite tournament and I have always dreamed of getting to the final here," hesaid.

"Now that I am in the final I can dream ofwinning it all, but it will be very hard as Coria is an excellent player.

"This is the result of a lot of hard work and a lot of hard battles and it is just so satisfying to be able to experience it."

Nalbandian said that he had been bothered by a painful injury to his ribs that affected his serving.

"It happened in the last set against Guga (Kuerten) in the quarterfinals. We did everything we could with treatment over the last two days and today I felt better, but I was still in pain," he said.

"I had my chances in the second set, but then Gaston played so well. I just didn't seem to have any power or energy in my legs."