Purely French finals in Montpellier between Richard Gasquet and Lucas Pouille, in Sofia Mirza Basic and Marius Copil meet two qualifiers.
Double premiere at the ATP World Tour 250 tournament in Sofia: Marius Copil, who won 6-4 and 6-2 against qualifier Jozef Kovalik in the first semi-final, as well as Mirza Basic, will have their first chance to win an ATP title in the Bulgarian capital on Sunday. Basic had to face the much more difficult task: The Bosnian played against Stan Wawrinka in the preliminary round, won against the two-time Major winner 7:6 (6) and 6:4.
Wawrinka was late in the tournament and had gone to Sofia to replace last year’s winner and local hero Grigor Dimitrov. Basic, on the other hand, had mutated into a German shock during the last few days: The 26-year-old, as well as his final opponent over qualifying, had in turn sent Florian Mayer, Philipp Kohlschreiber and Maximilian Marterer home in the quarter-finals.
In Montpellier, there is a purely French affair in the final: Richard Gasquet had already secured his sixth consecutive final place in the afternoon with a three-set win over David Goffin, and on Sunday the fourth title in Montpellier could follow.
In the second semi-final, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga’s victory was a clear indication of his success, especially after a 6-1 win over Lucas Pouille in the first set. However, in the new edition of the final at the Stadthalle in Vienna last October (then Pouille won smoothly in two rounds) Tsonga was unable to continue playing due to an injury at the score of 5:5 in the second set.
In the direct duel between the two finalists, Pouille leads with 3:1 victories – the last match was also in Vienna. There, Pouille won 7-6 (5) and 6-1.
Here the single panel in Sofia
Here the single panel in Montpellier