Australian Alex de Minaur spoiled the potentially massive celebration for soon-to-be world No. 1 Alexander Zverev, defeating the German 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (4) on Saturday to reach the final of the Erste Bank Open in Vienna, Austria.
Zverev was seeking his third title of the year, but he will have to settle for celebrating his ascension to the No. 1 ranking, taking over from Italy’s Jannik Sinner when the ATP rankings are released Monday.
There were no service breaks in the deciding set, but fifth-seeded de Minaur prevailed on Zverev’s first two service points in the tiebreaker and captured the match on his third match point. He earned 14 break points in the match, compared with just three for Zverev, but converted only one.
De Minaur moved past Spain’s Rafael Jodar and into the top eight in the race to qualify for the ATP Finals.
De Minaur will have to knock off second-seeded Carlos Alcaraz to claim his 12th career title. The Spaniard defeated Russia’s Daniil Medvedev 6-4, 7-6 (2) to reach the final.
Alcaraz has won all six of his meetings with de Minaur.
Swiss Indoors Basel
Monaco’s Valentin Vacherot raised his level late in both sets and defeated Taylor Fritz 7-6 (5), 6-3 to reach his first ATP 500 final.
Vacherot will face Czech Jiri Lehecka, who outlasted Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff 3-6, 7-5, 6-4.
Both players are seeking their first title of the year and have split their two previous meetings.
Vacherot fell behind 4-1 in the first-set tiebreaker but rallied to win the set by breaking Fritz’s serve at 6-5. In the second set, he raced to a 0-40 lead on the American’s serve in the eighth game, earned the break and served out the match in the next game.
Lehecka won 23 of 27 service points and held on after breaking Struff’s serve in the opening game of the deciding set.
–Field Level Media
