Second seed Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia beat Slovakia's Aljaz Bedene 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 to set up title date with Roberto Bautista Agut at the Aircel ATP Chennai Open Tennis Tournament on Saturday.
In the match that lasted 125 minutes, the 23-year-old Bedene kept up the momentum of Friday's upset win over fourth seed Stanislas Wawrinka and rattled Tipsarevic with excellent court coverage and unbelievable returns. However, he failed to convert his efforts into success when it came to breaking games.
In the ninth game, Bedene enjoyed success as he resorted to playing long rallies. He broke Tipsarevic and held for the set.
In the second, the plan to move up front paid off for Tipsarevic as Bedene failed to cross the net with a forehand from the edge of the right of the court.
Making full use of the unforced errors committed by Bedene, Tiperservic led all the way to win the second set 6-4.
In the decider, Bedene was stretched and nothing went in his favour. He often, though, came up with emphatic winners, particularly with his forehand.
Tiperservic was soon 3-0 ahead as Bedene wilted under pressure.
However, Bedene, who managed to reduce the margin to 2-4, almost broke Tiperservic in the seventh game.
In the eighth, Bedene yielded two match points to Tiperservic, and then made an ordinary return to concede the match.
In the other semi-final, world No 80 Agut played the match of his career to beat fifth seed Benoit Paire of France 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 in 115 minutes late in the evening.
