Kevin Anderson succeeded where Milos Raonic could not, bullying Gilles Simon with his powerful serve to reach his first Aegon Championships final.
Anderson fired down 34 aces to flummox Simon with his chief weapon, taking his tournament tally of perfect serves to 100.
The 29-year-old will on Sunday meet the winner of Viktor Troicki and Andy Murray, the Brit still gunning to tie the record four Queen's Club titles.
Anderson powered through to the final 6-3 6-7 (6-8) 6-4, where he will once again provide a severe threat owing mostly to that imperious serve.
As though demonstrating that very point, Anderson served out the match with an ace.
Where Simon stymied Raonic in the quarter-finals by second-guessing his bullet serve and running the powerful Canadian around the Queen's Club turf, the French star was unable to follow suit against Anderson.
The lofty South African extended his fine form to reach a maiden Queen's Club final, even producing the odd inch-perfect lob shot - the exact tactic Simon had employed to turn his clash with Raonic on its head on Friday night.
Anderson bracketed himself alongside Raonic as just trailing Ivo Karlovic and John Isner in the world's serving stakes, but gave France's world number 13 more receiving problems than the Canadian could manage in last-eight action.
Anderson managed to break Simon in the first set, coasting into the lead after that courtesy of his impregnable serve.
Simon refused to buckle under huge pressure when serving to start the second set, both men holding throughout to induce the tie break.
Anderson then squandered an early advantage, Simon edging home to level the match.
As with his quarter-final against Raonic, Simon had more joy reading Anderson's massive serve as the clash unfolded.
Simon was unable to maintain that mini rally however, still slipping to defeat, with Anderson again breaking the Frenchman in the final set before coasting home.