LYON — Top seed Dominic Thiem of Austria booked a place in the Lyon Open final by beating Serbia's Dusan Lajovic 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 on Friday.

The world No. 8 will face veteran Gilles Simon for the title, after the Frenchman ended Briton Cameron Norrie's hopes with a 6-1,7-6(7-6) victory in the other semifinal.

Simon broke Norrie's serve three times in the first set, but his 22-year-old opponent put up a better fight in the second and forced a tiebreak that he briefly led before Simon's brought all his experience into play.

The 33-year-old saved two set points before seeing out the match, but Norrie will leave Lyon with his reputation greatly enhanced. The youngster's run to the last four will see him break into the top 100 in the world for the first time.

Thiem was forced to play twice on Friday after his quarterfinal match against Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez was suspended the previous day due to fading light.

The match resumed with the players level at one set apiece and the Austrian battled for 50 minutes before closing out a 6-7(7-4), 7-6(7-0), 6-4 victory.

His semifinal against Lajovic lasted just under two hours, and the 24-year-old will be aiming to win his 10th ATP title on Saturday to get a boost ahead of next week's French Open.

Cibulkova recovers to reach Strasbourg final

Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova battled back from a set and a break down to beat Romanian Mihaela Buzarnescu 2-6, 7-6(7-5), 6-1 and secure her place in the Strasbourg International final on Friday.

The fifth seed will face Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova for the title, after the Russian's opponent, top seed Ashleigh Barty, retired due to injury in the other semifinal.

Buzarnescu had the upper hand initially as the two went toe-to-toe from the baseline, and the Romanian fourth seed controlled the opening points with ease, moving her opponent around the court and using the drop shot to devastating effect

In contrast, Cibulkova struggled with her serve, winning 29 percent of her first serve points in the opening set. Her woes continued into the second, and she soon found herself battling to stay in the match at 5-3 down.

Few would have foreseen the turnaround that was to follow. Cibulkova's serve finally surfaced and she held to draw within a game of her opponent, while Buzarnescu's composure deserted her as she made a series of errors that allowed the Slovak to break and draw level at 5-5.

The set went to a tiebreak and Cibulkova scrapped ferociously to force the deciding set, before coasting to victory in clinical style, winning 71 percent of her first serves and making only three unforced errors in the final set.

Third seed Pavlyuchenkova progressed after Barty retired while trailing the Russian 6-4, 1-0. — Reuters