WALES star Leigh Halfpenny admitted it was a dream come true after he helped Toulon reach the European Champions Cup final following a tense extra-time victory over Leinster at the Stade Velodrome in Marseille.

The Toulon full-back booted six penalties and a conversion of wing Bryan Habana's interception try midway through the additional 20 minutes as Toulon triumphed 25-20 to book a Twickenham final appointment with fellow French heavyweights Clermont Auvergne on May 2.

Leinster gave as good as they got for most of the contest, with centre Ian Madigan kicking five penalties and flanker Sean O'Brien scoring a late try, but it was Madigan's pass that South African speedster Habana intercepted to see Toulon home.

Toulon, bidding to become the first team in 20 years of European knockout club rugby to win three successive tournaments, were pushed all the way by a Leinster side who delivered their best performance of this season's competition.

Ultimately, though, they were left to reflect on what might have been, conceding 13 points during extra time after holding Toulon 12-12 after 80 minutes.

"As a professional rugby player, something like this is what you grow up dreaming of," said Halfpenny, who joined Toulon from Cardiff Blues last summer.

"You work hard day in, day out to be involved in the big matches, and the success and ambition of Toulon, I felt that I wanted to be a part of that.

"The intensity and physicality was right up there with an international match. It was touch and go throughout and games sometimes are decided by very small margins.

"You could not switch off for one second and credit to the boys. The character they showed was immense."

TENNIS: Novak Djokovic became the first player to win the opening three ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events when he defeated Tomas Berdych 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 at the Monte Carlo Masters.

World No.1 Djokovic had overpowered eight-time champion Rafael Nadal to reach the final, not dropping a set on his 2015 clay-court debut this week.

However, the 27-year-old Serb did not have it all his own way in a rain-hit match against Berdych, who had forced a break in the very first game and later rallied to take it to a deciding set.

Djokovic, though, eventually came through to extend his winning streak to 17 matches and the advantage over Roger Federer in the world rankings to more than 5,000 points.

Berdych had signalled his intent with an early break, only for Djokovic to regain his composure and lead 5-3 before eventually closing out the first set after 53 minutes.

Djokovic was 3-2 up in the second before rain took the players off court for the best part of an hour.

Berdych, the world No.8 who reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open in January, came back refreshed and broke at 4-3 before levelling the match with some powerful forehands.

However, a string of unforced errors from the Czech in the decider then allowed Djokovic to move into a 4-0 lead, from which he closed out victory in two hours and 43 minutes.