MASON, Ohio – Andy Roddick is back on the attack just in time for the U.S. Open.

Using his aggressive serve-and-volley style, the American overwhelmed Chile’s Fernando Gonzalez 6-3, 6-3 on Saturday night to reach the finals of the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters.

For Roddick, it culminated a weeklong comeback from injury and set up a rematch with Juan Carlos Ferrero, the player he beat for his 2003 U.S. Open title.

“I haven’t felt like this on a tennis court in so long,” Roddick said.

The unseeded Ferrero followed up his big upset with a personal breakthrough of his own Saturday, beating hobbled fellow Spaniard Tommy Robredo 6-3, 6-4.

Afterward, he said he’d prefer to play Roddick. That long-ago loss at Flushing Meadows is still fresh in his mind.

“Big memory of that match,” Ferrero said. “His serve was unbelievable.”

Both of them have a chance to take their late-summer comebacks to the next level.

Roddick was playing well when he strained his left side last month, forcing him to drop out of one tournament and skip the next two. He has gotten better each match in Cincinnati, despite lingering soreness in his side.

On Saturday, his serve-and-attack was running at full speed. Roddick served a dozen aces and won 29 points off his 32 first serves, a mark of domination. He faced only one break point in the match.

When he broke Gonzalez for the second time to close out the first set in a tidy 34 minutes, Roddick pumped his fist and screamed, “Yes!” By the end of the match, Gonzalez was mumbling to himself as he shuffled around the court, unable to figure out how to solve his serve.

Roddick, 23, hasn’t been to a Masters final since Cincinnati last year. He hasn’t even won an ATP tournament since Lyon last October, and has been in only one other final this year, losing to James Blake at Indianapolis last month.

That became the start of his turnaround.

The 26-year-old Ferrero also is on the rebound. Three years after his best moments, he feels ready for a few more.

The Spaniard hasn’t played a title match since last October, when he lost in Vienna. He hasn’t won an ATP tournament since 2003, the year of those greatest moments – a French Open championship, runner-up to Roddick at the U.S. Open, a world No. 1 ranking.

“I think I’m playing as the same level as when I was No. 1,” Ferrero said. “I’m very relaxed on court. I don’t have to think too much to make a point.”

He made his point in the quarterfinals, pulling off one of the tournament’s two major upsets. He beat No. 2 Rafael Nadal in straight sets, two days after Britain’s Andy Murray stunned No. 1 Roger Federer and ended his 55-match winning streak in North America.

For the first time in more than a year, a tournament featuring both Federer and Nadal will be won by someone else. The last 15 times the duo played in the same tournament, one of them won it.

This one will go to someone who hasn’t hoisted a trophy in a long time.

Ferrero has spent the last two years trying to rejoin the game’s elite. After his run to the top in 2003, he got chicken pox and a wrist injury that set him back in 2004. He dropped as low as No. 98 early last year, before starting the difficult climb back.

“You work hard and when you’re still not having good results, it’s tough,” said Ferrero, sure to move up next week from his ranking at 31. “You think it’s never going to come.”

He finally reached a final by taking advantage of Robredo, who was bothered by a stiff leg. He got a massage after the first set, but had trouble moving around when the points went long.

So, Robredo took chances and tried to finish them off fast. The strategy backfired – he missed badly on routine shots and had 31 unforced errors.

“I knew that running and running would be tough for me,” Robredo said. “I tried to hit hard and be aggressive. That’s why I was missing today more than normally.”

Even his serve deserted him when he needed it most.

The seventh-seeded Robredo hadn’t lost a game on his serve all tournament, going 40-for-40, but was broken twice in the first set. His double-fault finished off the first break and set the tone.

Robredo is the only player other than Federer and Nadal to win a Masters tournament this year – he took the title at Hamburg in May – but didn’t have much of a chance against a player who is getting back to his old form.

“Well, I think he’s on the way,” Robredo said.

AP-ES-08-19-06 2042EDT