Stefanos Tsitsipas, who overcame top seed Daniil Medvedev in the semifinals, will play a revitalised Borna Coric in the Western & Southern Open championship match.
Medvedev had a 7-2 advantage in their previous meetings, but Tsitsipas, the seventh-ranked player in the world, prevailed in two hours and 23 minutes, according to DPA.
Tsitsipas’ net play, in which he won 27 of 36 points at the net and 82% of his first serve points, contributed to the victory. He made 33-28 winners compared to Medvedev’s 35-27 unforced errors and 11 double faults, including a crucial break in the third set.
After losing in the semifinals in both 2020 and 2021, Tsitsipas advances to the Cincinnati final for the first time with the victory on Saturday night. Tsitsipas survived a set point to the Russian to draw the match at 3-3 after Medvedev had won the first game of the encounter. He then won the tie-break on his first attempt.
In the second set, the Russian reclaimed control, jumping out to a quick 5-0 lead thanks to a string of double faults from Tsitsipas before rallying to a 5-3 lead with Medvedev down 0-40 on serve as both players had periods of inattention.
The world number one certainly lost some momentum, but he maintained his composure to finish the second set and tie the match.
The third set was cut short by fireworks, which seemed to affect Medvedev more so than Tsitsipas. The Russian committed a number of costly double errors, one of which gave the Greek a 4-2 advantage. Tsitsipas profited to secure the victory.
Coric defeated ninth seed Cameron Norrie with a commanding 6-3, 6-4 victory to advance to the decider, which would be his second career Masters final.
After undergoing shoulder surgery earlier this year, the Croatian has had a solid week in Cincinnati, having defeated Rafael Nadal and only dropping one set so far.
Coric initially looked to be in trouble after falling behind 3-1 in the opening set, but he quickly rallied to win the frame.
Following that, the 25-year-old won eight straight games to take a 4-2 lead in the second set and secure victory in 1 hour, 31 minutes. In the end, Coric recorded seven aces and 22 wins.
(Inputs from IANS)