Unseeded Karol Kucera of Slovakia staved off a late fightback by fourth seeded Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina to win 6-3, 7-5 and storm into the final of the ATP Tata Indian Open in Chennai on Saturday.
Kucera, who scalped top seed and defending champion Guillermo Canas of Argentina 6-1, 7-5 on Friday, will meet second seed Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand, who easily beat Jean Rene Lisnard of France 6-2, 6-1 in the other semi-final.
The match between the 83rd ranked and unseeded Kucera and Chela, saw the latter, higher ranked at 23 and seeded fourth, at the receiving end. Perhaps, it was a coincidence that Chela decided to receive serve after winning the toss. Kucera brought his experience into play and his perfect coordination of first serves and minimal unforced errors made the day for him.
The Argentine, who had jumped from 177 to 23 in the ATP champion's race and has two career titles to his credit, could not put his game plan into effect as he did against Leander Paes in the first round. In fact, Chela had not dropped a set before today's match against Kucera, who had played two tough matches in earlier rounds in this tournament.
Chela saved two set points in the first set, which he lost at 3-6, though he almost came back in the second set.
In the second set, Kucera broke Chela in the third and fifth games and went on to lead 5-1. But Chela turned tables on Kucera, holding in the 7th and 9th games and breaking in the eighth and 10th to make it five-all.
Chela began playing well away from the baseline and scored winners through his double handed backhand low returns.
In the 11th game, Kucera had a break-point and rushed close to the net after return of serve and then broke Chela with a delectable low volley in the vacant spot.
Serving for the match, Kucera maintained the momentum and won the match at 40-15 as his low backhand cross court shot was sent long by Chela.
The other semi-final was a simply one-sided affair with Srichaphan proving too strong for his opponent.