Sumit Nagal got past fifth seed Filip Horansky of Slovakia 7-6(1), 6-2 in the semifinals of the €46,600 Challenger tennis tournament here on Saturday. In the final, the fifth-seeded Nagal will face seventh seed Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands.
The 22-year-old Nagal, who had qualified for his maiden Grand Slam at the US Open and had a dream start by winning the first set against Roger Federer, will be looking for his first title in two years.
It was a breakthrough for him to make the final after five semifinals in Challengers this season in Milan, Bratislava, Lyon, Samarkhand and Savannah.
Nagal has nine ITF Futures singles titles, apart from the Challenger title that he won in Bengaluru in 2017.
Meanwhile, fourth seed Yasutaka Uchiyama of Japan stunned top seed Prajnesh Gunneswaran 7-6(7), 6-4 in the semifinals of the $81,240 Challenger in Shanghai.
The semifinal entry was worth 33 ATP points and $3,765 for the 85th ranked Prajnesh.
The results:
$81,240 Challenger, Shanghai: Semifinals: Yasutaka Uchiyama (Jpn) bt Prajnesh Gunneswaran 7-6(7), 6-4.
$81,240 Challenger, Istanbul: Doubles (semifinals): Andrey Golubev & Aleksandr Nedovyesov (Kaz) bt Hugo Grenier (Fra) & Ramkumar Ramanathan 6-4, 6-2.
€46,600 Challenger, Banja Luka: Semifinals: Sumit Nagal bt Filip Horansky (Svk) 7-6(1), 6-2.
$15,000 ITF women, Tabarka, Tunisia: Doubles (quarterfinals): Natalia Siedliska (Ger) & Anna Ureke (Rus) bt Alice Viglianisi (Ita) & Humera Shaik 6-2, 6-0; Nadia Echeverria Alam (Ven) & Anna Popescu (GBR) bt Likhitha Kalava & Bhuvana Kalva 6-0, 6-1.