The ATP NextGen Finals in Milan have their dream finale! The two top seeds Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alex de Minaur were each able to assert themselves in their semi-final matches in five sets and will play for the title at the U21 tournament on Saturday.
De Minaur won a highly competitive encounter against Spanish Jaume Munar in five sets. The Australian, who was seeded to two, did not have to accept a break in the entire game, but lost two tiebreaks and had to make the decision in the fifth set.
In the end, “Demon” lived up to his role as favourite and sent Rafael Nadal’s protégé on a well-deserved holiday thanks to a 3-4 (5), 4-1, 4-1, 3-4 (4) and 4-2 victory. Especially with his agility and the ability to place almost unattainable balls in the court, de Minaur knew how to inspire the spectators in Milan.
But Munar also enchanted the fans in the Italian metropolis and fought his way back again and again in the high-class game. After the clearly lost sets two and three, the 21-year-old fended off four match points in a row in the fourth round at a score of 2:3 and 0:40 and forced a decisive set. But there de Minaur proved to be too strong.
In the second semi-final, the winner also lived up to his role as favourite. The top seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas defeated Andrey Rublev with 4:3 (3), 3:4 (5), 4:0, 2:4 and 4:3 (2). In the first two sets no player managed a break – so twice a tiebreak had to bring the decision. Both players were able to win a short decision in line with their performance.
At the beginning of the third stage, Tsitsipas made the first break of the evening to 2-0. The 20-year-old did not want to miss out on this advantage – with another winning return game, he took set three to zero. In the fourth run Rublev first broke through the service of his opponent, but had to accept a rebreak immediately.
But the 21-year-old did not let himself be disturbed by it and set to 3:2. Out of anger about the lost game Tsitsipas destroyed the headset over which he could get instructions from his coach, and injured his hand in the process. After a short Medical Time Out, the Stockholm Champion could continue, but had to give up the set with 2:4.
In the fifth movement, Rublev’s nerves fluttered at first. With two inexplicable mistakes on the net, he gave his opponent a break to 2-0. But Tsitsipas was also anything but saddle-fixed: With a double mistake, he immediately lost his serve again.
Incredible scenes then took place at the score of 3:2 for Tsitsipas. The Greek had his first game and had a match point thanks to the No-Ad rule. Rublev had to serve a second serve due to a new timeout, but failed to do so and fended off the match point with a 196 km/h service. A tiebreak had to bring the decision.
In this one, the top seed quickly took the lead 4-1. He transported this lead safely across the finish line. After just over two hours of play, Tsitsipas converted his first match point.
Thus the 20-year-old fixed the dream final in Milan. In the Head to Head between Tsitsipas and de Minaur it is 1:0 for the Greek. In the autumn of this year he was able to assert himself in Tokyo in three sets.