Lorenzo Musetti saved a match point to beat Sebastian Korda in Athens on Friday and keept alive his hopes of squeezing into the season-ending ATP Finals in Turin.
The Italian won 6-0, 5-7, 7-5, and in the final will face Novak Djokovic, who ended his run of semi-final losses as he cruised past Yannick Hanfmann 6-3, 6-4.
Musetti is ninth in the race to qualify for the eight-man Finals which start on Monday in his home country. He needs to win the Athens tournament to collect enough points to overtake Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime in the standings. Musetti started well, dropping just five points as he swept to the first set.
In the second set, Musetti broke in the seventh game but Korda broke straight back and then broke to love in the decisive 12th game. Korda had the first break point, and a match point, in the 10th game of the third set.
Musetti escaped, ending a long rally by drawing the American to the net with a drop shot and then lobbing him. The Italian immediately broke, then saved a break point in his next service game before breaking Korda again to win in two hours 20 minutes.
“I think we both played a fantastic match,” Musetti said. “The level was getting higher and the adrenaline was intense.” “Achieving the final here is really important and I am already focusing on tomorrow.” Earlier, Djokovic took 79 minutes to dispatch German qualifier Hanfmann.
“I think it was the best tennis I’ve played this tournament,” Djokovic added. “It came at the right time. Hanfmann poses a great threat because he serves big, has a big game, so I needed to really stay focused.”