The Moselle Open remains a good place for the German players. After Peter Gojowczyk celebrated his first title on the ATP World Tour in Metz last year, Matthias Bachinger wants to do the same this year. The 31-year-old from Munich fought his way from qualification to the final of the ATP 250 event worth 501,345 euros.
By Florian Heer from Metz
On Sunday Bachinger will meet local hero Gilles Simon, who had no problems in the last four with Radu Albot from Moldova and won in two sets. For Bachinger, currently ranked 166 in the world rankings, this will be the first ATP final. The two have already met twice. Both times the Frenchman left the field as the winner. This was most recently the case in the quarter-finals in Bucharest six years ago.
“I’m very happy. Of course the audience will be for Gilles, but the crowd here is super fair,” Bachinger said after his semi-final win against Kei Nishikori on Saturday afternoon.
The victory against the number one seeded Japanese player is Bachinger’s greatest success in his career. From the second set onwards, the German shone with a variable style of play, marked by aggressive strokes from the baseline. Chip-and-Charge and serve-and-volley were not uncommon. After a rather restrained start, the final score was 2:6, 6:4, 7:5 for Bachinger.
“He was simply better in the first set, played very well and I felt a little tired from yesterday because I didn’t sleep until four in the morning. It wasn’t easy, but I fought my way into the match. I could hold my service games and suddenly had my chances to break him,” Bachinger concluded and revealed his key to success:
“I tried to go point by point and stay aggressive. You have to be brave. If you stay in the back and wait for something to happen, you hardly have a chance. After all, Kei is not just any player. It says: Have balls and go for it!”
Nishikori also paid tribute to his opponent. “I don’t think I played my best tennis in the last two sets, but Matthias also played fantastically,” Bachinger’s performance surprised the world’s number twelve. “He plays very flat and often comes to the net. “Under these conditions, he can be dangerous to any opponent.”
Bachinger himself is also taken with the places in the arena in Metz.
“The balls are good and don’t bounce too high, in ideal height for me. Already at the beginning of the week I had a good feeling here. Of course, I didn’t expect it to go that far. But when it works, it works,” says Bachinger.
However, there will be no special preparation for the grand finale for the blonde. “I’m going to have dinner with my coach Tobias Summerer and just take it easy,” was the plan for Saturday evening.
Here the single tableau in Metz