SAINT PETERSBURG: Fiery Italian Fabio Fognini beat top seed Roberto Bautista Agut on Saturday to reach the final at St Petersburg in his first tournament since being kicked out of the US Open.
The 30-year-old was disqualified from the doubles tournament at Flushing Meadows after launching into a sexist tirade against a female umpire during his first-round singles defeat.
Fognini, who has since said that he would also accept a ban from the Australian Open next year for his misdemeanour, saved two match points to battle past Spaniard Bautista Agut 2-6, 7-6 (9/7), 7-6 (7/5) and set up a final with Bosnian Damir Dzumhur.
"It was a very tough match, It's never easy to play Roberto," Fognini, who is bidding for a sixth career ATP Tour title, said.
"My main goal now is to recover for the final. I've played two times on the clay with Dzumhur and I expect a difficult match tomorrow."
World number 55 Dzumhur had earlier seen off German Jan-Lennard Struff 6-3, 7-5 in the first semi-final.
"Today I played well from the start," Dzumhur said. "It was one of my best matches in the last few months. And I'm really happy to advance into my second final this year."