Six days ago, Italian Marco Cecchino suffered a straightforward defeat in the final round of qualifying in Budapest. On Saturday, the lucky loser advanced to his maiden ATP World Tour final.
Cecchinato, who was competing in his first tour-level semi-final Saturday at the Gazprom Hungarian Open, came from a set down to beat countryman Andreas Seppi 5-7, 7-6(4), 6-3 and earn a shot at his first title.
The World No. 92, who was appearing in his first ATP World Tour semi-final, trailed by a set and 4/2 in the second-set tie-break, but won five of the next seven points to force a deciding set. From there, Cecchinato dropped just three points behind his first serve and secured a crucial break in the sixth game. The 25-year-old served out the match to love three games later to move into his first championship match.
Seppi was bidding to reach his first World Tour final since the 2015 Gerry Weber Open (l. to Federer), but fell to his second semi-final defeat of the season having also lost to Roger Federer earlier this season at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament. As a result of Seppi's loss, the event is now guaranteed a first-time ATP World Tour titlist. Cecchinato will meet 2017 finalist Aljaz Bedene or Australia's John Millman in Sunday's final. The Italian trails Bedene in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 0-1 and has never faced Millman on Tour.
Did You Know?
The all-Italian semi-final marked the first time that two Italian men had reached the semi-finals of an ATP World Tour event since the 2017 Plava Laguna Croatia Open Umag.
from Tennis - ATP World Tour https://ift.tt/2Jwr3hq
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