Australia’s Bernard Tomic had five break points before finally converting his first in the third game against Joao Sousa from Portugal. Tomic was fighting for a top-100 ranking which he would claim with a spot in the Chengdu final.
Tomic started the week ranked at no. 123. With the points earned so far, he is expected to be ranked at 102 or 103. Sousa is the world no. 50 and is 0-3 in the head-to-head against the Australian. The last win for Tomic came on hard courts in Tokyo just under a year ago.
After getting the break to lead 2-1, Tomic followed up with a hold of serve and then managed to hold the next few games to take the first set 6-4.
Tomic had breakpoints in the first game of the second set and converted on the second to take the early lead at 1-0. This was followed up by a hold of serve to immediately have Sousa under pressure.
Tomic was serving for the match at 5-4 and faced three break points as he fell behind 0-40. He worked his way back to hold a match point and then was able to convert to take himself into the final where he will meet the world no. 13 and top seed from Italy Fabio Fognini.
After reaching the final Tomic is sitting at 92 on the live rankings, a win in the final would take him into the 70s. Quite a comeback this year after having fallen to 243 in May 2018.
