Davis Cup veteran Ruben Gonzales and American Hunter Johnson bested their wildcard rivals Friday to reach the finals of the Troufeul Tiriac-Nastase Challenger in Bucharest, Romania.
Gonzales and Johnson, seeded third in the 44,000 euro tournament, squeaked past a close second set to beat hometown bets Alexandru Jecan and Dan Alexandru Tomescu, 6-4, 7-6 (4).
The victory arranged Gonzales and Johnson a title showdown against unseeded Maximilian Marterer of Germany and Lukas Rosol of Czech Republic, who needed a decider in stunning top seed Jamie Cerretani of the United States and Luca Margaroli of Switzerland, 6-3, 3-6, 10-3.
Gonzales and Johnson so far only dropped a set – against Moldovan tandem Radu Albot and Alexander Cozbinov, 6-3, 6-7 (2), 10-6, in the quarterfinals.
The Filipino-American pair opened their campaign with a 6-1, 7-5 win over Romanian wildcard bets Nicholas David Ionel and Filip Cristian Jianu.
Meanwhile, fellow Davis Cup veteran Treat Huey and Danish partner Frederik Nielsen yielded in the semifinals of the FlowBank Challenger in Biel, Switzerland also Friday.
The top-seeded Huey and Nielsen bowed to fourth seed Ruben Bemelmans of Belgium and Daniel Masur of Germany, 6-4.7-5.
Prior to their loss, Huey and Nielsen downed Czech Republic’s Marek Gengel and Austria’s Maximilian Neuchrist, 6-7 (5), 6-2, 10-2, and Swiss duo Jakub Paul and Yannik Steinegger, 6-4, 1-6, 10-4.