Austrian Dominic Thiem is close to breaking into the Top 20 of the Emirates ATP Rankings
Top seed David Goffin will meet third seed Dominic Thiem in the Swiss Open Gstaad final on Sunday – 12 months to the day since they squared off for the Kitzbuhel crown. Goffin leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 3-1.
Goffin, who reached his fourth ATP World Tour final at ‘s-Hertogenbosch (l. to Mahut) in June, defeated fifth seed and two-time former winner Thomaz Bellucci 6-4, 6-2 in 62 minutes.
Goffin converted his first chance at 30/40 on Bellucci’s serve in the ninth game, prior to closing out to love for the 32-minute first set. When Goffin broke to 15 for a 2-1 lead in the second set, he looked on course for his 24th match win of the season. A fact that was confirmed when Bellucci failed to recover, once again, in the fifth game.
Thiem continued his fine run of form earlier on Saturday by reaching his third ATP World Tour final of 2015. The third seed became the first Austrian in the Open Era to advance to the Swiss Open Gstaad championship match by overcoming second seed Feliciano Lopez 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-3. It was his 26th match win of the year.
Thiem, who is six places lower than Lopez at No. 24 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, broke Lopez twice in the 32-minute opener. He could have taken control of their third meeting with a 3-1 second set lead, but could not convert a break point opportunity at 30/40. But by the time Thiem saved one break point at 5-5, Lopez was full of confidence, the match had swung, and he soon opened up a 5/2 lead in the tie-break.
Thiem regrouped, but, unable to convert two break point chances in the opening game, had to bide his time in the decider. He won three straight games from 3-3 to wrap up victory in one hour and 54 minutes. It was Thiem’s third straight win over recently married Lopez, who is now 19-17 on the season.
Third seeds Oliver Marach and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi will play Aliaksandr Bury and Denis Istomin in the Gstaad doubles final.
Marach and Qureshi defeated top seeds and 2012 champions Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez 6-3, 4-6, 10-6 in 88 minutes on Saturday. They will now look to add to their 2011 Bangkok title (d. Kohlmann-Waske).
Marach, 13-14 in ATP World Tour finals, has finished as runner-up as Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro (w/Andujar) this year. Qureshi, 11-13 in title matches, is also appearing in his third final. He reached the Dubai championship (w/Zimonjic), and won the Newport title (w/Marray).
(Courtesy of the ATP and Original Link – http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/news/gstaad-2015-saturday-goffin-lopez-thiem-bellucci )
Topics: Atp World Tour, David Goffin, Dominic Thiem, Gstaad final, Swiss Open, Tennis
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