After his semi-final clash against Yannick Hanfmann was interrupted on Friday night with Misolic leading 1/0 in the third-set tie-break, the #NextGenATP Austrian kept his cool to complete a 6-2, 2-6, 7-6(4) victory and reach the final in his first tour-level tournament at the clay-court ATP 250 event.

Misolic played the best part of six sets in front of a raucous home crowd on Friday, engineering two remarkable comebacks against Dusan Lajovic and Hanfmann to keep his title dream alive. The wild card had trailed 2020 finalist Hanfmann 1-4 in the third set before rallying to force the tie-break, and he stayed consistent upon resumption on Saturday to claim the six points he needed to set a championship match appointment with third seed Roberto Bautista Agut.

Misolic had begun his dramatic Friday with a tense 2-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 win against Lajovic in a quarter-final clash delayed from Thursday due to rain. The home favourite recovered a 2-6, 3-5 deficit to upset the former World No. 23, with his exciting brand of shotmaking frequently bringing the passionate home crowd to their feet.

Prior to his quarter-final win against Lajovic, Misolic had prevailed against Daniel Dutra da Silva and then Pablo Andujar in Kitzbühel. The World No. 205, who was born in Austria to Croatian parents, has shown good form on the clay already this year, lifting his maiden ATP Challenger Tour title on the surface in Zagreb in May.

Misolic and Hanfmann’s cliffhanger clash was the second meeting between the pair in the space of 12 days, after the German was a 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-0 winner in the first round of qualifying for last week’s EFG Swiss Open Gstaad.