Jiri Vesely gave a big thank you to his coach for convincing him to get to Auckland early after earning his first ATP Tour final spot.

Vesely had to win two qualifying matches to get into the tournament but he’s kept on winning, topping his run off with a 6-4 7-6 semi-final win over world number 16 Kevin Anderson of South Africa.

The 21-year-old Czech, ranked 63 in the world, lost in the second round in Chennai last week and said he contemplated waiting a day to fly to Auckland.

“I’m very happy that my coach forced me to go straight away because maybe I wouldn’t have got past the quallies, maybe I wouldn’t be that match fit,” he said.

“It’s just been a great week and I will try to finish the run with a victory.”

Vesely’s qualifying victims included Lucas Pouille, who made the semi-finals after getting a lucky loser berth, and he’s since beaten two top 20 players – world number 13 Ernests Gulbis, the only man to take a set from him, as well as Anderson.

It’s not often Anderson comes off second best in a serving contest, but Vesely barely lost a point on his serve until the end of the second set, and despite being broken when serving for the match he held his nerve in a tiebreak to win 6-4 7-6.

“I think for him it was a little bit tough playing a lefty who’s serving pretty fast because he’s not so used to it,” Vesely said.

Vesely will meet another man seeking his first title in Adrian Mannarino, who beat his fellow Frenchman Pouille 6-4 3-6 7-5.

In 10 years as a professional the 26-year-old Mannarino had never made an ATP tour final until this week, though his ranking of 44 is his highest yet.

Mannarino was well in control in the first set, but he missed a break point opportunity early in the second set and said he lost the plot for the rest of the set.

“When you are going crazy a little bit like this it’s tough to come back on your match. Finally I did it, I was able to calm down a little bit.”