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Cape Town - Australian Bernard Tomic reached his first ATP Tour final in more than two years on Saturday, beating Portugal's Joao Sousa 6-4, 6-4 in the semi-finals of the Chengdu Open in China.
The 25-year-old will face top seed Fabio Fognini in Sunday's final, after the Italian beat American Taylor Fritz 6-7 (7/5), 6-0, 6-3 in the other semi-final.
Tomic, who sent down 12 aces and saved all three break points he faced to beat Sousa in one hour 15 minutes, is finally returning to something like his best tennis after a slump that has seen his ranking drop to 123rd in the world.
The last time the Australian found himself in a position to fight for a tour-level title was in Acapulco in February 2016, where he lost to Dominic Thiem.
Fognini, the world No 13, is looking to become the first Italian man to win four ATP Tour-level titles in a season, after his victories in Sao Paulo, Bastad and Los Cabos.
He fought back after losing a first set tie-break to Fritz to claim his 40th tour-level win of the season in one hour 49 minutes.
Results of Saturday's ATP Chengdu Open matches at the Sichuan International Tennis Centre (x denotes seed):
Semi-finals
Fabio Fognini (ITA x1) bt Taylor Fritz (USA) 6-7 (5/7), 6-0, 6-3
Bernard Tomic (AUS) bt Joao Sousa (POR x7) 6-4, 6-4
