An opportunistic Lu Yen-hsun continued his hot run at the Status Athens Open Saturday, defeating Gilles Muller of Luxembourg in straight sets to advance to Sunday's final. Lu, currently ranked 102nd in the world, overcame a game challenge from the lower-ranked Muller and a short rain delay early in the second set to book his ticket to the final with a 6-4, 6-4 victory. He will face his occasional doubles partner, German Rainer Schuettler, in the final of the 85,000 euro ATP Challenger event. Schuettler is seeded seventh and has dropped two sets in his four wins leading to the final. Though the eighth-seeded Lu was rarely in trouble on his serve, losing a total of only 13 points in 10 service games, he had trouble getting break opportunities against the hard-serving Muller, who had 11 aces on the day. Lu had only six break points in the entire match, with four of them coming in the first game of the second set -- all of which were saved by Muller. Fortunately for the 26-year-old Taiwanese, he converted the other two to earn a service break in each set and the victory. Lu, whose ranking has dropped as he has played more top level ATP Tour events over the past 10 months, is hoping to rack up ranking points on the second tier Challenger tour during the main ATP Tour's claycourt season leading up to the French Open in late May. Lu has never felt comfortable on clay and rarely plays on it, so he's hoping to use the time to perform well enough in hardcourt Challenger events to propel him back into the top 100. A victory in Athens would send him back into the top 90, where he would be assured of gaining automatic entry to the main draw of grand slam events. 