Unseeded Nikoloz Basilashvili continued his hot streak by rolling over Mikhail Kukushkin 7-6 (7/5), 6-1 to reach the final of the ATP Tour’s Memphis Open.
The 24-year-old Georgian, making his Memphis debut, has won nine of his past 10 matches as he seeks his first career ATP title.
Basilashvili blasted five aces, had no double faults and won 75 percent of his first-serve points in the one hour, 46 minute match.
Red-hot Basilashvili scored the biggest upset of the tournament when he beat top seed Ivo Karlovic 7-6 (7/2), 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals.
Basilashvili next faces the winner of a later semi-final between unseeded Americans Donald Young and Ryan Harrison.
Basilashvili, ranked a career high 67, defeated world number eight Dominic Thiem last week en route to the semi-finals in Sofia, where he lost to eventual champion Grigor Dimitrov.
His only prior ATP final came in last July’s Austrian Open, where he lost to Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi.
Kukushkin, ranked No. 103 in the world, was competing in his first semi-final since 2015 in Sydney, Australia.
Left-hander Young, ranked 81st, is 0-2 in ATP finals, losing to Andy Murray at the 2011 Thailand Open and Karlovic at the 2015 Delray Beach Open.
Harrison, ranked 62nd, has lost in all five prior ATP semi-final appearances, the most recent in 2015 at Acapulco to Spain’s David Ferrer.
They have split two prior meeting, Young routing Harrison on Houston clay in 2014 but retiring in the third set at Acapulco in 2015.
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