Double shifts in Delray Beach and Rio de Janeiro: At the ATP 250 tournament in the USA, Frances Tiafoe entered the final on Saturday after two successful appearances. Fernando Verdasco was also twice victorious at the 500cc event under the Sugar Loaf Mountain.
Frances Tiafoe needed eight match points against Australian Open semi-finalist Hyeon Chung to secure part of his final ticket. The local heroes did not have much time to catch their breath. Because the quarter-finals in Delray Beach ended because of rain on Saturday, Tiafoe had to clear the next NextGen colleague out of the way that same evening.
The 20-year-old American won 7:5 and 6:4 against Denis Shapovalov. In his first final on the ATP tour (not before 9 p. m. CET live on DAZN) Tiafoe, who defeated Juan Martin del Potro in the last 16, will face Peter Gojowczyk. Munich’s number 64 from Munich had previously held up well against Steve Johnson in two sets. For “Gojo” it’s about his second title on the tour this Sunday. In Metz, the 28-year-old celebrated the greatest success of his career so far last September.
Thiem-Bezwinger Fernando Verdasco has also secured a place in the final at the sandy court tournament in Rio de Janeiro. The seasoned Spaniard will face Diego Schwartman after his 6-1,7-5 defeat of Fabio Fognini, who won 7-5 and 6-2 against surprise Chilean Nicolas Jarry in the other semi-final.
Half the harvest has already arrived in the Olympic city of 2016 in Verdasco, an Austrian horror. Alexander Peya and Croatian Nikola Mektic were beaten 7-5,5-7,8-10 by the Spanish Lucky Loser Verdasco/Marrero in the double final.
At the ATP World Tour 250 tournament in Marseille, Karen Khachanov and Lucas Pouille are in the final. The Frenchman, who already won the tournament in Montpellier two weeks ago, held his ground in the semi-final 6-3,7-6 (6) against Belarusian qualifier Ilya Ivashka. Khachanov plays after his 6-3,6-2 win over Tomas Berdych for career title number two, Pouille could take the winning cheque with him for the sixth time.