Paire, Hurkacz to meet in Winston-Salem Open final

Benoit Paire continued his fine season to reach the Winston-Salem Open final as Hubert Hurkacz moved into his maiden ATP Tour decider.

Paire, the top seed at the ATP 250 tournament, beat Steve Johnson 1-6 6-0 6-0 in a rollercoaster clash in North Carolina on Friday.

After none of the scheduled quarter-finals were completed due to severe weather a day earlier, the tournament played catch up.

Paire overcame Pablo Carreno Busta in the last eight while Johnson, last year’s runner-up, eliminated John Millman.

Frenchman Paire lost just 10 points in the third set in his semi-final against Johnson, moving onto 29 ATP Tour wins this season and into his eighth final.

The top seed @benoitpaire drops the first set 6-1, then serves a double bagel to last year’s finalist Steve Johnson.

Paire is thefinalist in tomorrow’s match. He faces the winner of  Hurkacz/  Shapovalov.

Will it be  v.  or will the Polish player pull off the upset? pic.twitter.com/zmgjB3UqpF

— Winston-Salem Open (@WSOpen) August 24, 2019

Paire will face Hurkacz after the 22-year-old Pole beat Frances Tiafoe and Denis Shapovalov on Friday.

Hurkacz was a 6-3 6-4 winner over second seed Shapovalov, who overcame Andrey Rublev in the quarter-finals, in their semi-final to move into his first ATP Tour final.