American Ryan Harrison and Georgia's Nikoloz Basilashvili, unseeded players seeking their first ATP titles, advanced to the Memphis Open final with straight-set triumphs Saturday. Harrison, ranked 62nd, ousted compatriot Donald Young 6-4, 6-4 while Basilashvili, ranked a career-high 67th, won for the ninth time in 10 matches, downing Kazakhstan's Mikhail Kukushkin 7-6 (7-5), 6-1. The two finalists will meet for the first time. Basilashvili defeated world No. 8 Dominic Thiem last week en route to the semifinals in Sofia, where he lost to eventual champion Grigor Dimitrov. The Georgian's only prior ATP final came in last July's Austrian Open, where he lost to Italy's Paolo Lorenzi. Harrison had lost in all five prior ATP semifinal appearances, most recently in 2015 at Acapulco to Spain's David Ferrer. Basilashvili blasted five aces, had no double faults and won 75 percent of his first-serve points to win in one hour, 46 minutes. Red-hot Basilashvili scored the biggest upset of the tournament when he beat top seed Ivo Karlovic 7-6 (7-2), 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals. Kukushkin, ranked 103rd, reached his first semifinal since 2015 in Sydney, Australia. Harrison won 30 of 39 first-serve points and saved four of the five break points 81st-ranked left-hander Young managed, surrendering his serve only in the eighth game of the final set. Young had routed Harrison on Houston clay in 2014 but retired against him in the third set of Harrison's 2015 Acapulco run. Nishikori in Buenos Aires final Japanese top seed Kei Nishikori reached his second final of 2017 with a grueling 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 win over Argentina's Carlos Berlocq at the Buenos Aires clay court tournament. World No. 5 Nishikori needed two hours 45 minutes to see off wild card Berlocq, the 34-year-old world No. 77 to set-up a Sunday title showdown against Ukraine's Aleksandr Dolgopolov who beat Spanish fourth seed Pablo Carreno-Busta 7-5, 6-2. Nishikori made the final on hard court in Brisbane in January but was beaten by Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov in three sets. The 27-year-old will be chasing his 12th career title on Sunday and third on clay after triumphs in Barcelona in 2014 and 2015. Dolgopolov, 28, has not dropped a set all week to reach his seventh ATP final. He will be contesting his first title match in three years, since falling to Rafael Nadal in Rio de Janeiro in 2014. "I feel very good," said world No. 66 Dolgopolov. "It's really nice to be in a final again because because I had a couple of tough years." Nishikori will square off against Dolgopolov for the sixth time, having won all 10 sets played. — Agencies
