British number two Dan Evans has suffered a three-set defeat to Tommy Haas in the semi-finals of the Zagreb Indoors tournament.
Evans, who has produced a career-best performance in Croatia, took the opening set, but the number one seed edged out the world number 147 by a 5-7 6-4 6-3 scoreline.
The two players shared the opening 10 games, with Evans being forced to save a set point, but the 23-year-old recovered to break the German's serve for a second time to move one away from victory.
The second set was dominated by serve, but it was Haas who broke serve in the final game to take the momentum into the decider.
Evans was playing in his seventh match of a demanding week after progressing through qualifying as a lucky loser, and that workload appeared to take its toll during the final set.
The Birmingham-based player made it to 2-2 but the pressure from Haas finally told as he broke serve to lead 4-2, and although Evans forced the number one seed to serve out the match, he did so to 15 to move through to the final, where he will play Marin Cilic.
Evans could move up to a career-high ranking of 124 when the latest world standings are released on Monday.
Darren Plant
