By beating the American Taylor Fritz 7-6 (7/5), 6-3, Basilashvili, 29, thus accomplished one of the greatest feats of arms of his career, while Norrie (ranked 26th in the 'ATP) is the first Briton to reach the final of the California tournament since 2009, and Andy Murray, then beaten by Rafael Nadal.
The Georgian will face his third ATP title of the season on Sunday after his successes in Doha and Munich.
“
It's an incredible feeling
,” said the son of a Georgian National Ballet dancer. “
I am super happy. I was nervous and stressed. I was very tense, but I just tried to focus on the game. When we concentrate, we release stress. I know I can play good tennis, I just need to not be too tense
”. The Georgian saved three set points to take the first set in the tie-break. In the second, the two opponents each won their serves until the seventh game, when Basilashvili broke to lead 4-3. He won the semi-final after 1h41, on his fourth match point against Fritz, the crowd's favorite, by landing a forehand that left the American in place.
Norrie for a 2nd title
Fritz (39th world), surprise striker of Alexander Zverev (4th) in the previous round, made 11 aces, but made more double faults than his opponents (three against one).
As for Norrie, who reaches the first final of a Masters 1000 of his career, he won against Dimitrov (28th) in two sets 6-2, 6-4, and only 1h26 of play.
The 26-year-old left-hander, winner of his first tournament (an ATP 250), in Los Cabos, last month, had so far never even reached the quarters or halfs of a Masters 1000 or a tournament of Grand Slam.
Facing Dimitrov, he was more confident from the start, taking the service of his opponent each time from the start of the two sets and forcing the Bulgarian to chase the score, and concluding the match with a shutout on his service.
"
I am very happy,
" said the Briton, born in Johannesburg and raised in New Zealand, said after the meeting, admitting that his opponent had "
not given the best of himself today
". “
I was very solid. I went on his backhand a lot, it ended up exasperating him. I managed to serve well and in great moments, I concluded when needed,
”he analyzed.
The Bulgarian, who found for the first time since 2019 the semi-finals of a Masters 1000, made too many mistakes and unforced errors to hope to reverse the match.
Despite a day of rest, Dimitrov, author of a remarkable comeback during his trip to Indian Wells, can be paid for his last meetings in three sets against the Polish Hubert Hurkacz in the previous round (2h37) and especially against Medvedev, 2nd player world and winner of the last US Open, eliminated in 8th by the 30-year-old born in Haskovo.