The final matches at the Nitrum Stockholm Open and the VTB Kremlin Cup in Moscow have been confirmed – among others Bosnia Damir Dzumhur continues to play big.
A thrilling semi-final day in Stockholm, Moscow and Antwerp has produced the finalists.
Especially in the Swedish capital, the spectators got to see two spectacular semi-finals. The first finalist was determined between the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov and the Italian hot-spur Fabio Fognini. The two “hard-hitters” fought a thrilling duel, as Dimitrov often had the better answer. In the end, the favourite scarcely wins 6:3 and 7:5 against Fognini.
Dimitrov’s opponent was then looked for between the Argentinean and defending champion Juan Martín del Potro and the Spaniard Fernando Verdasco. Verdasco secured the first round in the tiebreak with a score of 7:6 (4). His opponent, however, did not get stuck and had his forehand whip put on needle stitches again and again, which eventually led to a 6:4 set equalization. However, Verdasco, who quickly took the lead with a break and a 2-0 lead, caught the better start in the third round, but “DelPo” did not take long to equalize with a re-break to 2-2. In a narrow third round, the tiebreak was followed by a clear 7-1 win for Del Porto, 6-7 (4), 6-4 and 7-6 (1) finalists.
The first semi-final in Moscow was to be a purely Bosnian one, in which Daniel Dzumhur and Mirza Basic duelled. Dzumhur took over the initiative from the beginning and handed out a bagel in the first round after only 22 minutes. The second set should not be so clear and Basic found better in the match. After Basic was able to fend off eight match points at a score of 5:6, the tiebreak started. Dzumhur won the match with his eleventh match point to win 6:0 and 7:6 (9) match. For the Bosnian, it is in St. Peter’s after his title. Petersburg the second final in just a few weeks.
In the final of the Kremlin Cup, Dzumhur will face the Latvian Ricardas Berankis. Berankis surprisingly won against the Frenchman Adrian Mannarino 3-6,6-4 and 6-1.
At the tournament in Antwerp, Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga won the final following a 6-3 and 6-3 win over local heroes Ruben Bemelmans. In the final, Tsonga will face Argentinean Diego Schwarzman, who won 6-3 and 7-5 against Stefanos Tsitsipas.