Home favourite Ugo Humbert came from behind to book a spot against Germany’s Alexander Zverev in the final of the Paris Masters.
Both beat former Paris champions on Saturday to reach their fourth ATP final of the year, with world number three Zverev having lost the final of the French Open to Carlos Alcaraz in June.
Humbert, the French number one, beat Karen Khachanov 6-7 (6-8) 6-4 6-3 after Zverev produced a superb performance to outclass world number 13 Holger Rune 6-3 7-6 (7-4).
Humbert twice lost his serve in the opening set but each time the world number 18 replied immediately to break back, only for Russia’s Khachanov to clinch it in a tie-break.
Khachanov, the world number 21, forced one break point in the second set and was unable to take it as Humbert improved on his first serve and used powerful groundstrokes to take charge, hitting 13 winners to level the match.
The 26-year-old carried that approach into the decider and was even more dominant, breaking twice to clinch victory.
Earlier, sustained pressure from the baseline helped Zverev grab an early break for a 3-1 lead but the German had to work a lot harder in the fifth game before unleashing a couple of booming serves to consolidate it.
The Roland Garros runner-up, 27, shrugged off a late double fault to wrap up the opening set on the back of 11 winners at a packed Palais Omnisports in Bercy.
A tighter second set followed as Rune ramped up the aggression by serving and volleying at times, but Zverev took control in the tie-break by racing ahead 3-0 and held his nerve from there to earn a career-high 65th win of the season.
