Alex de Minaur beats Holger Rune in Mexican Open semi-final, will face Tommy Paul after American outlasts Taylor Fritz

Alex de Minaur and Tommy Paul will meet in the 2023 Mexican Open, but neither earned their place the easy way after dramatic semi-final victories.

For the Australian De Minaur, it took nearly three hours to overcome Danish world No. 9 Holger Rune 3-6 7-5 6-2.

While the teenager dominated in the early stages, sweeping through the first set, his opponent showed tenacity by gradually clawing his way back into the match.

A physical battle that lasted into the early hours of Saturday morning local time in Acapulco, it was a match that sapped the energy of the young Rune who suffered from cramps throughout the decisive third set.

After the seesawing match, De Minaur appeared confident.

He said: "It feels great. It feels like I deserved it. I hung in there, I stayed tough. It's not easy because he's a hell of a player. He was hitting me off the court at times and not letting me really do much. But I managed to save a couple of crucial break points and keep giving myself chances... I took the one chance I [converted] and rolled with it."

Australians have done well in this event in recent years, De Minaur's countryman Nick Kyrgios won the event back in 2019, while Bernard Tomic was a beaten finalist in 2016.

De Minaur, the bottom seed in the draw, beat local wildcard Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez in the first round, Italian qualifier Jacopo Berrettini in the second and Japanese-American Taro Daniel in the quarter-finals all without dropping a set.

Victory over Rune puts De Minaur into his 11th ATP final, of which he has won six.

Opposing him in Sunday's final is Paul.

Paul battled his way past fellow American Fritz in three sets, earning his first win against the Californian.

After winning the opening set, Paul let the second slip in a tiebreaker, and required another tiebreaker to secure his place in the final, eventually winning 6-3 6-7(2) 7-6(2).

Another of the lower seeds, Paul also reached the semi-finals without dropping a set. He beat Ecuadorian Emilio Gomez Estrada in the first round before sweeping Americans Michael Mmoh and Mackie McDonald.

After beating Fritz, Paul was delighted.

He said: "I couldn't be happier. Obviously looking forward to making the body feel a little better tomorrow. The goal for this year was to get the ranking up and get more trophies. I only have one trophy on Tour. You don't get trophies unless you're in the final, and hopefully I can play another good match tomorrow and get the winner's trophy."

Speaking on his battle with Fritz, Paul was generous in his praise: "You have to [dig deep]. It's never going to be easy against Fritz, he's unreal. He doesn't give you any points throughout the whole match, you feel like you have to work for everything. Obviously he got up a break in the third there and it was weird, I started feeling my body a little bit and doing some weird serves, and I don't know if he loved it. And then I think something happened with his stomach too. I think I got a little lucky there that we were both struggling, not just me."