Poland's Kamil Majchrzak entered into the singles semi-finals of the 2022 Maharashtra Open, upsetting second seed Lorenzo Musetti of Italy in a thrilling three-setter at the Balewadi Stadium here on Friday.
The unseeded Polish player beat Musetti 6-2, 6-7(7-5), 6-4 in the quarter-finals of the fourth edition of South Asia's only ATP-250 event, which is being organised by the Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association and will conclude on Sunday.
The 26-year-old Majchrzak started the match confidently against World No. 66 Musetti and convincingly pocketed the first set.
But Musetti re-energised his batteries and got his rhythm back in the second set, which witnessed an intense battle as it went into a tie-breaker where the Italian rising star came out on top and levelled the scores, taking the match into the decider.
"It was very difficult because after the first set Lorenzo changed his tactics. He made me play longer rallies and he actually found his rhythm so it was difficult from almost the beginning of the second set. Maybe, I was not returning good enough to put pressure on his service games," Majchrzak said after the match.
When it seemed the 19-year-old Musetti, a youngest player to break into the Top-100, would make a comeback into the contest, World No. 95 Majchrzak found his mojo back and put up a strong show to seal the set as well as the match.
"He (Majchrzak) was serving really well. I'm upset as it was so close in the end. I won a great second set and was playing better. I think I was leading the game in the third set and felt I could win. At the moment, I'm sad about the match but I have to take what it is and try to rectify my mistakes and come out a better player next week," Musetti commented on his exit from the tournament.
Majchrzak will now face Emil Ruusuvuori of Finland in the semi-finals on Saturday.
Ruusuvuori sent defending champion Jiri Vesely packing with a 6-3, 6-4 win in another quarter-finals contest, played later in the day.
The 22-year-old Ruusuvuori, who kickstarted his campaign by defeating last edition's runner-up Egor Gerasimov, extended his brilliant run in the tournament as he took just one hour and 17 minutes to complete the straight sets victory over Vesely without breaking a sweat.
Later on Friday, apart from other two singles quarter-finals, Indian pair of N Sriram Balaji and Vishnu Vardhan will look to secure a berth in the doubles semi-finals when they take on top-seeded Australian duo of Luke Saville and John-Patrick Smith.
( With inputs from ANI )
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