Defending champion and second seed Prajnesh Gunneswaran overcame third seed Kamil Majchrzak of Poland 7-6(5), 6-7(3), 6-4 in the semifinals of the $162,480 Challenger tennis tournament on Saturday.
Prajnesh dropped serve four times, but converted five of 14 breakpoints to prevail in a battle that lasted two hours and 49 minutes.
It was the second win for the 80th-ranked Prajnesh over the 130th-ranked Majchrzak.
Interestingly, Prajnesh had bounced back from a 6-0 loss in the first set in the semifinals of the same tournament last year, winning 12 of the next 16 games.
In the final, Prajnesh will play the 211th-ranked Jay Clarke of Britain, whom he had beaten in straight sets in the second round of the qualifying event in Miami recently.
In the ITF Futures in Shymkent (Kazakhstan), Sidharth Rawat and Manish Sureshkumar were beaten 6-4, 6-2 in the final by Teymuraz Gabashvili and Ivan Liutarevich.
The results:
$162,480 Challenger, Anning, China: Semifinals: Prajnesh Gunneswaran bt Kamil Majchrzak (Pol) 7-6(5), 6-7(3), 6-4.
$25,000 ITF men, Shymkent, Kazakhstan: Doubles (final): Teymuraz Gabashvili (Rus) & Ivan Liutarevich (Blr) bt Sidharth Rawat & Manish Sureshkumar 6-4, 6-2.
