In Chengdu, 20-year-old Karen Khachanov continued his best week reaching his first career ATP final after downing Viktor Troicki 6-3, 7-5.
“It feels great for me to be in the final,” Khachanov said. “Dreams are coming true, to be playing in my first ATP World Tour final tomorrow. Of course it gives me confidence. In the first round I also beat the seventh seed and yesterday I beat the fourth seed. It gave me confidence going into today’s semi-finals. I will just try to focus on my game and follow the plan I have with my coach.
“If it goes well, it goes well. If not, I’ll change it during the match. The mental aspect is one of the most important and that’s why you have to be focused.”
The Russian will face Spanish lefty Alberto Ramos-Vinolas who was a 7-6(6), 1-6, 7-6(3) winner over Grigor Dimitrov.
Ramos-Vinolas overcame a 6-3 first set breaker deficit and held on after squandering a 3-1 third set lead.
“The match was tough, it was almost three hours,” said Ramos-Vinolas. “I’m very happy because I beat a great player. He will be one of the best in a few years. It is another final for me tomorrow and I cannot be more happy. I was a little tired after the first set so I maybe needed some time to recover and I did a little bit (in the second).
“I think the third set was physically very, very tough. I kept on fighting and that’s why I am very happy because it was very difficult to win.”
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