American tennis professional Ben Shelton has reached a final on the ATP Tour for the first time in his career.
The young star won his semi-final against compatriot Marcos Giron at the tournament in Tokyo 6:7 (2:7), 7:6 (7:5), 6:4 and will face Russian Aslan Karazew, the local hero Shintaro, in the final on Sunday Defeated Mochizuki 6:3, 6:4.
In Japan, Shelton only played the second semi-final of his young career. At the beginning of September he surprisingly made it into the top four at the US Open in New York, but the 21-year-old failed at the eventual winner Novak Djokovic.
After several favorites had said goodbye early on from the tournament, which was endowed with a good two million dollars, the world number 19 was. Shelton went into the semifinals as the highest ranked player. Olympic champion Alexander Zverev (9th) had already failed in the first round against Australian Jordan Thompson, and Norwegian Casper Ruud (8th) was also eliminated early.