Alex de Minaur held off Frenchman Ugo Humbert 7-6 (7/4) 6-3 to reach the final of the ‘s-Hertogenbosch grass court Wimbledon warm-up on Sunday.
The Australian top seed will face American Sebastian Korda in Sunday’s final at the ATP event in the Netherlands.
The straight-sets win ensured the 25-year-old will reach a career-high world ranking of eight, and victory over Korda will even push him up to number seven.
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It means De Minaur is now best placed to become the highest ranked Australian male since Lleyton Hewitt was No. 7 in 2006.
However, it was not all plain sailing for De Minaur as he claimed the first set via a tie-break following the loss of five consecutive games after having raced into a 4-0 lead.
“It was an interesting one that’s for sure. I got off to a very good start playing some great tennis and then I maybe lost focus a little bit,” said De Minaur.
“I was able to just sneak that first set and then happy with the break at the end and happy to be here. Happy it didn’t rain and onto the final.”
Earlier, third seed Humbert completed his quarter-final tie with Dutchman Gijs Brouwer, emerging victorious from the match which started on Friday 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.
Korda, the 23-year-old American, needed just 64 minutes to dispatch last year’s Dutch champion Tallon Griekspoor 6-2, 6-4 in the semi-final as he seeks to win his second-ever tour title.
“Overall, I’m very happy with today,” said Korda.
“It was super tricky, super windy, and obviously Tallon is an unbelievable player and he won here last year.” Korda will play his seventh tour final on Sunday, with his sole victory coming on the clay in Parma in 2021.