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Lucky loser Lorenzo Sonego of Italy followed up his surprising victory over world number one Novak Djokovic by beating Briton Dan Evans to reach the ATP final in Vienna on Saturday.
Sonego had condemned Djokovic to his biggest best-of-three-set loss in the quarterfinals, where the 17-time major winner claimed just three games.
The world number 42, who described that as “the best victory of my life,” beat Evans 6-3, 6-4 and will face Russian Andrey Rublev in Sunday’s final.
“I’m really happy. After yesterday it wasn’t easy to play Evans because he has a good talent,” said Sonego.
“He has a good backhand and it was not easy. But today I won and I am very happy ”.
The 25-year-old Sonego had initially lost in the final qualifying round in the Austrian capital to Aljaz Bedene six days ago, but entered the draw as a lucky underdog when Diego Schwartzman retired.
World number eight Rublev reached the final when South African Kevin Anderson retired with a leg injury 6-4, 4-1 down.
Rublev, who is chasing a fifth title this truncated season, has won 18 of his last 19 games.
“I came here thinking that I have nothing to lose. I already had a really great season, so I came here to enjoy myself, to give my best, to fight for every point, every game, and now here I am in the final, “said the 23-year-old.
“I want to keep thinking the same way and we’ll see what will happen tomorrow.”
Rublev, the fifth seed, knocked out defending champion Dominic Thiem in the quarterfinals on Friday and hasn’t dropped a set this week.
It also has to stop serving.
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