Britain’s Dan Evans is into the last four of the second-tier Nottingham Challenge event after beating Dominik Koepfer in a lengthy three-setter.

Evans, 29, took a 62-minute opener in a tie-break, before losing the second to German Koepfer on another shootout.

The British number three eventually prevailed 7-6 (8-6) 6-7 (6-8) 6-4 in two hours and 41 minutes.

Evans will play Japan’s Go Soeda later on Saturday for a place in Sunday’s final after a week of rain delays.

Thirty-four year-old Soeda will also be playing his second match of the day after overcoming Czech 16th seed Lukas Rosol 6-4 6-4.

World number 70 Evans is climbing the rankings after serving a year’s ban for cocaine use. He is on a steak of eight successive victories after lifting the title in Surbiton last week.

• Evans focused on the future

In the Nature Valley Open event being held at the same venue, Croatia’s second seed Donna Vekic recovered from losing the first set to sweep into the final with a 5-7 6-0 6-0 win over Germany’s Tatjana Maria.

She will play either top seed Caroline Garcia of France or Jennifer Brady of the United States.

Tournament officials in Nottingham have been criticised by Sascha Bajin, the current coach of French player Kristina Mladenovic who has also worked with Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams, for how they have handled the week’s weather conditions.

The German tweeted on Friday that “many bad decisions have been made here in Nottingham”.

However, Great Britain Davis Cup captain Leon Smith and the Lawn Tennis Association’s director of international events Stephen Farrow were among those to defend the organisation.

“Our great team in Nottingham have dealt with five complete washouts in the past seven days,” Farrow said.

“This is unprecedented for any tennis event in the UK. Easy to criticise but in the circumstances they’ve done an outstanding job.”