Australia's Bernard Tomic has reached his first ATP World Tour final in more than two years, beating Portugal's Joao Sousa 6-4, 6-4 in the semi-finals of the Chengdu Open in China.
The 25-year-old will face top seed Fabio Fognini in the final, after the Italian beat American Taylor Fritz 6-7(5), 6-0, 6-3 in the other semi-final.
Into the final: Bernard Tomic.
Tomic, who sent down 12 aces and saved all three break points he faced to beat Sousa in one hour and 15 minutes, is finally returning to something like his best tennis after a slump that has seen his ranking drop to 123 in the world.
The last time the Australian found himself in a position to fight for a tour-level title was in Acapulco in February 2016, where he lost to Dominic Thiem.
"Fabio is playing ridiculous, he has won three titles this year and he wants to win another one," Tomic said.
"He wants to make the (ATP finals) so for him this is an important match, but I have got nothing to lose. We will see tomorrow."
Fognini, the world No.13, is looking to become the first Italian man to win four ATP tour-level titles in a season, after his victories in Sao Paulo, Bastad and Los Cabos.
Unseeded Australian Daria Gavrilova upset fifth seeded Czech Petra Kvitova 6-2, 6-1 in the first round of the China Open as Serbia's Aleksandra Krunic showed stunning powers of recovery to pull off her own shock win over sixth seed Elina Svitolina.
Kvitova was undermined by her own inconsistency, making 39 unforced errors, while Gavrilova made just 12.
"Petra is a really tough opponent. It was a little bit tricky … but I felt like I took my chances and I served really well today," said Gavrilova, who landed 81 per cent of her first serves.
Krunic staged a remarkable rally in Beijing, after trailing by a set and a break, to beat Svitolina 0-6, 6-4, 7-6(4) for her first victory over the Ukrainian on her third attempt.
Krunic lost the first nine games of the match and trailed by a break three times in the final set, clawing herself back to level terms on each occasion before winning a dramatic tiebreak.
At the Shenzhen Open, unseeded Japanese Yoshihito Nishioka stunned Spanish veteran Fernando Verdasco in the semi-finals, winning a final-set tiebreak to set up a meeting with Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert in the final.
Herbert saved two match points to upset seventh seed Alex de Minaur 7-5, 2-6, 7-6(8) in the other semi-final.
Verdasco, who beat Britain's Andy Murray in the previous round, made a confident start against Nishioka, but the Japanese fought back to win 1-6, 6-3, 7-6(5) to reach the first ATP Tour final of his career.
Nishioka, who lost to Verdasco at this year's French Open, roared back after tamely surrendering the opening set and kept his wits about him in the tiebreak to wrap up his first career victory over the Spaniard in two hours and 20 minutes.
Herbert is better known for his skill as a doubles player, but reached his second career ATP World Tour final after surviving a de Minaur fightback in the second set.
The Australian clawed his back from 3-0 down in the final set to force the tiebreak and even had two chances to win the match, but Herbert was equal to the task.
The Frenchman saved the first match point with a volley under pressure and shut out de Minaur a second time with an overhead smash before sealing victory with his 42nd winner of the contest.
Reuters
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