Top seed Roberto Bautista Agut reached his second consecutive Winston-Salem Open final on Friday, beating German Jan-Lennard Struff 6-2, 6-4 in the semi-finals.
Bautista Agut broke four times and especially took advantage of Struff's second serve, winning 72 per cent (26/36) of those points. The German was playing in his first semi-final since 2014 Metz.
“I'm so happy to be in the final again. Today I played a very good match. It's been a great week for me,” Bautista Agut said.
The Spaniard fell in last year's title match to countryman Pablo Carreno Busta. He will go for his second title of the season (Chennai, d. Medvedev) and the sixth of his career against first-time finalist Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia-Herzogovina, who came back to beat Brit Kyle Edmund 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 in one hour and 53 minutes.
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Dzumhur is the first player from Bosnia-Herzogovina to reach an ATP World Tour final. Last week, he reached the final at the clay-court ATP Challenger Tour event in Santo Domingo (l. to Estrella Burgos). Saturday's final will mark his 11th match in the past 12 days.
“It's going to be a big thing for me, for my coutnry, as the only player in the Top 100 making great results. I think everybody in Bosnia is still awake and watching me, which makes me really proud for my country,” Dzumhur said.
“For such a small country as Bosnia, it's a really big result, and for all the country, what we went through the past 20 years. So I'm proud of my country and proud of myself and it's going to be a good day tomorrow.”