Richard Krajicek delighted the home crowds by setting up a final with Goran Ivanisevic after a pulsating victory over John McEnroe.
McEnroe won the first set 6-4 with some sublime tennis, but Krajicek hit back in the second, taking it 6-4.
The Champions' Tie-Break saw winner after winner from both players until a McEnroe double-fault handed his opponent a 10-7 victory.
McEnroe was inconsolable afterwards.
"I'm really upset because it?s a match I should won," he said.
"I know that Richard hasn't played that many tournaments recently and I thought I should have won. I think I'll go back to the hotel and punch myself."
Krajicek was understandably happy to reach the final of his home event for the first time.
"It's always fun to win and in the tie-break every point saw winners from both of us. It's always nice to hit a couple of aces and get a bit of nostalgia going as well," he said.
Ivanisevic moved through to the final with a straight sets win over Jim Courier, but he will be up against a man-possessed on Sunday.
"I'm Goran's pigeon," admitted Krajicek, who vowed to turn around their rather lop-sided head-to head.
"I've lost to him so many times 7-6 in the third set and even in Doha earlier this year it was in a Champions' Tie-Break. This has got to stop, it's ridiculous. I'm 3-8 in head-to-heads with him on the regular tour, and 0-1 against him on the Champions Tour. I can't let it happen again."
Courier will face McEnroe in the third/fourth place play-off.
Matches are contested over the best of three sets, with the deciding set taking the form of a Champions' Tie-break. The first player to reach 10 points is the winner; if the score is tied at 9-all, a two-point advantage is required.
McEnroe won the first event on the 2005 Delta Tour of Champions, the European section of the worldwide ATP Champions Tour, when he triumphed in Frankfurt in February. Sergi Bruguera overcame Pat Cash in the Doha final in April, and Ivanisevic also beat Cash a week later in the Hong Kong final. Muster took the first clay court title of the year with victory in Rome in May, and then Cedric Pioline triumphed in Novi, Croatia in June. McEnroe won his second title of the year in the Algarve in August, and then Muster lifted the Graz crown to top the rankings. The most recent event saw Courier triumph, beating Pioline in the Paris final.
After Eindhoven, the Tour moves on to Essen, Germany, where another all-star field will contest the Deichmann Champions Trophy in the last event before the Champions Masters at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
Players compete for points throughout the year to qualify for The Champions Masters which takes place between November 29 and December 4. The top ten players in the Stanford Financial Champions Tour Rankings after all events are complete will qualify automatically. The field in London will increase to 12 with the addition of two wild cards. There is a $100,000 prize on offer for the winner in London.
To be eligible to compete on the ATP Champions Tour, players must have been either a World No.1 during their competitive playing careers, a Grand Slam singles finalist, or a singles player on a victorious Davis Cup team, and no longer active on the ATP tour. Each event can also invite two players of its choice to take wild cards.
