The tournament is an ATP Challenger 100 event.

Lajal came into the match after several endurance battles in Asia, including a defeat in Gwangju, South Korea, which took three and a half hours, and a round two win in Wuxi which took nearly four hours to complete and saw all three sets go to a tiebreak. In that case, he won a revenge victory over Mikhail Kukushkin (Kazakhstan), who had beaten the Estonian in Oeiras, Portugal, at the start of the year.

The win set up Lajal, 22, ranked 158th in the world and tournament sixth seed, with an encounter with Sweeny, three years older than Lajal and 23 spots above him in the ATP listings, as well as being the third seed in Wuxi.

Sweeny won the first four games in set one, but the Estonian responded in kind and went one better in stringing together five game wins in a row.

While Sweeny leveled the score, Lajal took the next game and then converted his second set point opportunity to seal a 7–5 victory.

The second set started off more evenly and the players traded service games, with the Estonian leading until 3–2, when he secured a break and then moved ahead 5–2.

Sweeny managed to narrow the gap by two games, but Lajal finished confidently and secured his place in the semifinals with a 6–3 second set win.

This match lasted 90 minutes, making it a fairly open-and-shut affair for Lajal, who only returned from illness last month after many weeks off court. He served up eight aces in the match, while his opponent didn't manage one. The Estonian earned nine break-point opportunities and converted four of them, compared with two out of three for Sweeny.

Lajal next faces South Korea's Soonwoo Kwon (ATP No. 252) in the semifinals. Kwon had beaten Japan's Akira Santillan (ATP No. 320) in three sets, 6–1, 3–6, 6–2, in his quarterfinal match.

The pair have never met before competitively.

Lajal has won two ATP Challenger tournaments in his career so far.

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