PHOENIX, AZ - Jaume Martinez Vich was already having a pretty good day heading into the men’s singles semifinal against Jay Devilliers.

The No. 8 seed secured his first career win over Ben Johns in the quarterfinals, rallying to take down the top seed after dropping the first game.

In addition to the momentum that he undoubtedly brought from that match, Martinez Vich also brought with him a nagging leg injury.

That, of course, wasn’t helped by the fact that each of his matches before the semifinal went to three games.

All that aside, the first game of his semifinal against Devilliers was a back-and-forth affair, with Devilliers eventually gaining the advantage to go up 10-8.

A missed serve from the Frenchman on game point ended up being the turning point of Game 1, as Martinez Vich reeled off four points on his own serve to steal it, 12-10.

Devilliers bounced back quickly in Game 2, catching fire with both his one-handed and two-handed backhand third shot drives to race to an 11-2 response.

All this, of course, happening as Martinez Vich used a water bottle to roll out his quad during timeouts and in between games.

In the decisive third game, the Spaniard found success using drop volleys to bring the larger Devilliers into the kitchen to engage in cat-and-mouse rallies.

He used this strategy to build up a 10-8 lead in a wildly entertaining Game 3, but the shot of the match (and potentially the whole year) came with Devilliers serving at 8-10. Martinez Vich returned an overhead smash from the Frenchman with a reflex volley winner that he hit from below the net.

A few sideouts later, the former Hawaii Pacific University tennis player booked his ticket to Championship Sunday with his fourth three-game win of the afternoon, 12-10, 2-11, 11-9.

After the match, Martinez Vich gave some insight into dealing with his injury.

“My pain kind of comes and goes,” he explained. “I’ll forget about it and then play a long point, and then it will sometimes come back.”

He’s set to play mixed doubles with Jill Braverman on Friday and men’s doubles with CJ Klinger on Saturday, so we’ll see if his injury is still a factor for Sunday.

No. 2 seed Federico Staksrud awaits him in the final.