Tipsarevic, Bautista-Agut rally to set up title clash in Chennai Open

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CHENNAI, India — Second-seeded Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia overhauled surprise semifinalist Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 on Saturday and will play Roberto Bautista-Agut of Spain for the Chennai Open title.

Bautista-Agut, ranked 80th in the world, followed up his stunning win over top seed and sixth-ranked Tomas Berdych with another unlikely win, this time over fifth-seeded Frenchman Benoit Paire 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Ninth-ranked Tipsarevic, who lost a close final to Canadian player Milos Raonic here last year, praised Bedene and predicted he would soon be a top-50 player.

Tipsarevic, playing his fourth straight semifinal here, dropped serve in the ninth game to lose the first set.

But his better temperament held him in good stead as he took control with better serves and by cutting down on errors. He managed to break in the second game and clinched the second set easily. In the decider, he ran up a 4-1 lead and completed the victory in just over two hours.

Tipsarevic felt a closely fought seventh game of the deciding set had been crucial.

“Had he won that game, he would have come back strongly,” Tipsarevic said. “I know I’ll be the favourite for tomorrow’s final but I don’t want to bother about that and will just focus on my game.”

Bedene felt he had done his best in the match.

“The first set was really good for me but I did not stay focused all the time,” Bedene said. “Tipsarevic is one of the best players but I hope I can beat him next time.”

In the second semifinal, Bautista-Agut showed his win over Berdych was not a fluke as he overcame Paire.

Paire slammed 14 aces but could not match Bautista-Agut’s better overall game.

“This is the best week of my life,” Bautista-Agut said. “’Tomorrow will be the second top 10 player I will face in my life after Berdych (in the quarterfinals). It also happens to be my first final ever and I will be putting my best effort to win.”’

13:22ET 05-01-13