The British number one, who had beaten second seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov to reach this semi-final, was beaten 7-6, 6-4 by Safin who like Henman, has recently defeated Pete Sampras.

"I executed my shots poorly tonight. I tried to do a lot of the right things, but I didn't play particularly well - I think that's the bottom line," said Henman.

"We both had opportunities early on, but I played poorly - I'm not going to make any excuses.

Unforced errors

"I didn't play well enough and at the end of the first set I made too many unforced errors."

Nevertheless, Henman insists that he will go into the US Open, which starts in eight days, in good heart after his good recent run of results.

"Obviously I didn't play my best against Safin but I've been playing really well, probably the best I've played for a stretch in my career perhaps, and definitely the best I've played in the States.

"I'm really excited about the Open, I can definitely go to New York and work on a few things and look to have a good run.

Good run

"I'll probably have a couple of days off now, then I'll get into the city and start practising on Wednesday. I'm looking to have a good run, that's for sure."

Henman was on the defensive from the beginning of the match and needed to save eight break points in his first four service games to prevent a more embarrassing defeat.

Safin eventually secured the all-important break in game 11 and never looked like being beaten after that.

The pair had met twice before, with Henman winning 7-6 7-6 in Rotterdam in February 1999 and Safin gaining revenge with a 6-4 2-6 6-3 win in Vienna last October, both on carpet.

Safin will now face top seed Gustavo Kuerten in the final after the Brazilian rallied from 5-2 down in the first set to beat Australian Lleyton Hewitt 7-5 6-2.