Britain’s Dan Evans reached the final of the Washington Open with a straight-sets victory over Grigor Dimitrov.
Evans, who played twice on Friday before the semi-final due to rain, eclipsed his Bulgarian opponent 6-3 7-6 (4) in just under two hours to set up a meeting with Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands.
Despite being overmatched in the power department, Evans put together a clean and composed performance as a sloppy Dimitrov was left to rue his own mistakes.
The world number 20 fired 24 winners to just nine from Evans, but came unstuck with 30 unforced errors.
Evans is the first British player to reach the final in Washington since Andy Murray in 2006.
“It was so hard after yesterday putting in such a big effort,” Evans said in his on-court interview.
“Coming back today, it was really important for me to not roll over and have a bad performance. The last few months, that is what has happened a little bit.”
Meanwhile, Griekspoor rallied from a set down in his semi-final clash against top seed Taylor Fritz to win 3-6 6-3 6-2 as he chases his third title of the season.
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Tsitsipas wins first title of 2023
Over in Mexico, Stefanos Tsitsipas sealed his first title of the season with a 6-3, 6-4 win against Alex de Minaur at the Mifel Tennis Open.
Tsitsipas survived a three sets thriller in his quarter-finals win over Nicolas Jarry but did not drop a set across the rest of the week.
He will be among the favourites to go deep at the US Open, which is live on Sky Sports from August 28 to September 10.
“I feel like both of us wanted to go out on the court today and show a great final,” said Tsitsipas. “I feel like it was a great match. Alex showed great tennis, I tried to keep up with the level as much as I could.
“I’m really happy we were able to deliver a great final today. I think that is the thing that stands out the most. It was a great match and the crowd, as always, was fully present and engaged.”