Roberto Bautista Agut, who accounted for top seed Tomas Berdych on Friday, continued with his giant-killing run on Saturday as well when he beat fifth seed Frenchman Benoit Paire 3-6 6-1 6-4 to enter the final of the Chennai Open.
The unseeded Spaniard had beaten world No 6 Berdych 7-5 2-6 6-3 in the quarterfinals on Friday. It will be first final appearance for Agut on the ATP Tour, who broke into the top-100 last season.
In the final, Agut will take on second seed Serb Janko Tipsarevic, who came back from a set down to beat Slovenian Aljaz Bedene 4-6 6-2 6-2.
Though their is a huge gap between rankings of Tipsarevic (world No 9) and Bedene (world No 86), the latter matched the Serbian stroke for stroke and sometimes even left him stunned, especially in the first set.
“I started well and had my chances,” said Tipsarevic. “But in the middle of the first set, I took two steps back and instead of hitting, I was just pushing the ball back and he won the set.
“In the third, I told myself to fight. He lost focus and I was not giving him much time by hitting to the baseline.”
Bedene, who bore the brunt of the 25-second rule in the third set and was docked one serve, said: “I have not played too many tournaments at this level and reaching the semifinals gives me a good feeling. I am getting better and if I continue to work, I think I have a good future.”
Late on Friday night, India’s Somdev Devvarman and Ukraine’s Sergiy Stakhovsky were defeated by Thailand combo of Sanchai Ratiwatana and Sonchat Ratiwatana 3-6 5-7 in the doubles quarterfinal.
Results: Semifinals: 2-Janko Tipsarevic (Serbia) bt Aljaz Bedene (Slovenia) 4-6 6-2 6-2, Roberto Bautista-Agut (Spain) bt 5-Benoit Paire (France) 3-6 6-1 6-4
