De Minaur beats Moutet to reach Washington final

Washington, July 27 (IANS) Alex de Minaur overcame an error-prone performance to halt the run of French lucky loser Corentin Moutet 6-4, 6-3 and advance to the final of the DC Open here on Sunday (IST).

By reaching the final, De Minaur passed Andrey Rublev at No. 10 in the ATP Live Rankings. Moutet, who came into the tournament as a lucky loser after losing in qualifying, has this week climbed 13 spots to No. 46 in the ATP Live Rankings, cracking the Top 50 for the first time in his career.

After winning 14 consecutive points to start the second set, De Minaur seemed to be coasting to victory but double faulted to drop serve at 4-1 and later failed to serve out the match at 5-2 in a game that started with a double fault.

In a more promising sign, De Minaur won 17 of 22 points at net, regularly approaching Moutet's weaker backhand wing with impunity, ATP reports.

"It wasn't pretty tennis, but I knew it was going to be a tricky match without a lot of rhythm," De Minuar said. "That's what he's able to do to opponents. I had the mentality of doing whatever it took to get into the title match tomorrow."

The Australian will need to sharpen his game ahead of final against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina after spraying 33 unforced errors, including 21 in the opening set, and 21 for the match on his backhand, according to ATP Stats.

Fokina completed a hat-trick of victories against American players, backing up victories over Learner Tien and top seed Taylor Fritz with a 6-2, 7-5 win over fourth seed Ben Shelton in the evening's second semi-final.

Fokina, hit just 10 winners but capitalised on Shelton’s 35 unforced errors, including seven double faults. The 12th seed backed up impressively after the previous night rallying from 2-5 in the third set to beat World No. 4 Fritz.

He became just the second Spanish finalist in Washington, following Alex Corretja’s surprise victory over five-time champion Andre Agassi 25 years ago in 2000.

--IANS

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