Portugal's Joao Sousa drew on his experience to end Elias Ymer’s sensational run at the 2022 Tata Open Maharashtra with a remarkable three-set win to enter the singles final at the Balewadi Stadium in Pune on Saturday.
Sousa fought back from a set down to win the nail-biting semi-final 5-7, 7-6 (4), 7-5. He will take on sixth-seeded Emil Ruusuvuori in the summit clash on Sunday.
Ymer, who stunned top-seed and the World No. 15 Aslan Karatsev in the earlier round to earn the biggest win of his career, made a confident start to race to a 4-1 lead but Sousa recovered well in time to draw level at 5-5. However, Ymer regrouped and pocketed the set to take 1-0 lead in the match.
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Regarded as the best Portuguese player of all time, the former World No. 28, capitalised on the momentum gained towards the end of the opening set and led 4-1 in the second set. Sousa took away the set 7-4 in the tie-breaker.
The 32-year-old experienced campaigner put pressure on Ymer, who was in search for his first ATP title, giving him a neck-and-neck fight in the decider and successfully tilted the momentum in his favour in a gruelling contest that lasted for more than three hours.
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