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At the Open Sud in Montpellier, France, Kazakh’s Alexander Bublik came back from a set down for the third time in a row to beat Canada’s Felix Auger Aliassime 4-6 6-4 6-4 in a close match to reach the 10th final of his career.
Bublik saved a break point to hold serve in the sixth game of the first set but Auger Aliassime earned his first break in the 10th game to clinch the first set 6-4.
The Canadian then saved two break points in the second game of the second set but was broken in the fifth game as Bublik took a 3-2 lead which he held to level the match on his fourth set point.
In the third he converted his fifth break point in a seven-deuce first game of decider to take a 2-0 lead but Auger Aliassime responded by taking the next three games to go 3-2 up.
Bublik recovered from squandering a break lead and won four of the last five games to seal the win after two-hours and 37-minutes on his first match point.
Bublik aims to become the seventh player to become the Montpellier champion more than once in the 37-year-history of the of the event when he faces Croatia’s Borna Coric in Sunday’s final.
Bublik saved three match points against Canada’s Denis Shapovalov in the first round and was two games away from defeat before he beat Russia’s Alexander Schevchenko in the quarter final.
“It was a draining match. I am happy to get through. Playing Felix is a tough challenge, especially indoors. I left it all out there. I am happy to get through. I will try to win it again tomorrow”, Bublik said.
Bublik led top seed Holger Rune 6-3 4-1 in their first head-to-head clash when the Danish player was forced to withdraw from the match after 59-minutes of play with a forearm injury.
Coric broke him four times as he continued his comfortable run in Montpellier where he has dropped just 15 games in six sets and spent just four hours on court. He is chasing the fourth title of his career in what is his ninth final.
Borna Coric chasing the fourth title of his career
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
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