No. 4 seed Nikoloz Basilashvili saved two match points and ousted second-seeded Alexander Zverev in three sets Saturday to reach the final of the Hamburg European Open.
Tennis – ATP 500 – Hamburg European Open – Rothenbaum Tennis Center, Hamburg, Germany – July 27, 2019 Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili in action during his semi-final match against Germany’s Alexander Zverev REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer
Basilashvili, the defending champion, won 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (5) against the German, who is ranked No. 5 in the world.
The Georgian fought off two match points down 3-5 in the third set. He hit a forehand winner and put away a shot at the net to rally to win the game on his serve. He then broke Zverev’s serve to help force the tiebreak.
Basilashvili will meet 21-year-old Russian Andrey Rublev, who battled back to beat Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta 4-6, 7-5, 6-1. Rublev won 11 of the match’s final 13 games.
J. Safra Sarasin Swiss Open Gstaad
Spainard Albert Ramos-Vinolas beat countryman Pablo Andujar for just the second time in eight meetings Saturday to advance to the final in Gstaad, Switzerland.
Ramos-Vinolas, who hasn’t dropped a set in winning four matches this week, won 7-6 (3), 6-4 against the seventh-seeded Andujar, the 2014 champion of the event. Ramos-Vinolas, 31, will be going for his second ATP Tour title, having won in Bastad, Sweden, in 2016.
He will face 28-year-old German Cedrik-Marcel Stebe in an all-lefty final. Stebe reached his first ATP final by beating No. 5 seed Joao Sousa of Portugal 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, breaking serve seven times in the final two sets.
Stebe entered the week ranked 455th in the world and without a win on the ATP Tour since September 2017.
—Field Level Media
