ZAGREB, Croatia (AP)—Unseeded Ivan Dodig advanced to his first ATP final by overcoming third-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4 in the Zagreb Indoors on Saturday.
In the final on Sunday, Dodig will meet repeat finalist Michael Berrer, who defeated German countryman Florian Mayer 6-1, 6-4 in the other semifinal.
Dodig’s victory gives Croatia a finalist at home after its two highest-ranked players, Marin Cilic and Ivan Ljubicic, lost in the quarterfinals. A Croat has been in the final every year since 2006.
Dodig, who beat Ljubicic, won the second set against Garcia-Lopez from a break down. He broke the Spaniard in the first game of the third set and served out without losing a point.
“It was really tough. I went to my limits, especially in the tiebreaker,” the 84th-ranked Dodig said. “I’m very tired at the moment, but I hope I will be ready for the finals.”
Garcia-Lopez blamed the loss in part to a mistake by local linesmen.
“I had my chance, but linesmen made some mistakes,” he said. “At 4-3 and 40-30 in the second set I hit a good serve, but it was called out. I would go 5-3 up if it had not happened. But I did not lose just because of that.”
Berrer reached his second consecutive final in Zagreb, and the second of his career, by ousting Mayer in 59 minutes. Berrer, runner-up last year to Cilic, lost only nine points on his serve on Saturday and faced only one break point.
“Zagreb is obviously a very good place for me,” Berrer said. “I’m glad that the match took under an hour, so I was able to save energy for tomorrow.”