Defending champion Prajnesh Gunneswaran stormed into the final of the Kunming Open after battling past Poland's Kamil Majchrzak 7-6 (5), 6-7 (3), 6-4 in the semifinal on Saturday.
The second seed will face Britain's Jay Clarke in Sunday's final.
In a closely fought first set, Majchrzak gained the upper hand when he broke in the eighth game to take a 5-3 lead. The Pole had a chance to serve for the set, but Prajnesh did remarkably well to break back and hold serve to restore parity at 5-5.
The duo exchanged a couple of breaks again in the 11th and 12th games and forced a tiebreaker. Prajnesh gathered his nerves and held on to win the tiebreaker 7-5 and pocket the opening set.
The top-ranked Indian soared to a 3-0 lead in the second set and appeared to be cruising into the final, but Majchrzak wasn't one to go down without a fight. The third seed clawed back to make it 3-3 and managed to win breakpoints in Prajnesh's next two service games, but failed to capitalise on them. The second set, too, ended in a tiebreaker and Majchrzak won five points on the trot to push the match to the third set. Incidentally, this was the first time Prajnesh dropped a set in the tournament this year.
Much like the second, Prajnesh got off to a fantastic start in the deciding set. He broke Majchrzak's serve in the first and fifth games to seize control of the match and cruised to a 5-1 lead in quick time. Majchrzak did show signs of a comeback but it was too little too late as Prajnesh clinched the tie off his first match point in the 10th game.
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