It was semifinal Satuday in Sofia, with four singles players looking to book their ticket into Sunday’s final. The second spot in the doubles final was also decided with third seeds Wesley Koolhof and Matwe Middelkoop prevailing in a three-set thriller over fellow Dutchmen Thiemo de Bakker and Robin Haase.
One Break Enough For Bautista Agut
Roberto Bautista Agut reached his second final of 2016, after seeing off Gilles Muller in two close sets. Just one break of serve was enough for the Spaniard, who won an impressive 51 out of 68 points on serve.
The first set was a tight affair with both players only given a few rare opportunities to break the other. Muller had to save three break points compared to Bautista Agut facing just one. Neither player capitalized to avoid taking it into a tiebreak. Bautista Agut took the first mini-break, only to give the advantage back a few moments later. The Spaniard seized upon another opportunity two points later, before winning the set on on serve with the first set point that he saw.
Bautista Agut forced Muller into having to save a break chance in the first game of the second set, but it hardly mattered. The top seed secured the vital break of the match on the 7th chance he saw in the match. From that position, Bautista Agut did not look back. He served the victory out confidently at-love to continue his stunning start to the season. This will be Bautista Agut’s 8th ATP World Tour final.
Troicki Wins Thriller Over Klizan
The second semifinal was an absolute thriller with Viktor Troicki prevailing from a set down against Martin Klizan.
The match did not start well for Troicki as Klizan broke immediately to establish an early lead. The pair exchanged breaks six games later, before Troicki wasted four chances of breaking when returning to save the set. The frustration built for the Serb in the second set due to Klizan saving another five break points in the following service game, before going onto break on his first chance. Klizan was on the way to his fourth ATP final, but was immediately pegged back by Troicki who broke his serve. With Klizan serving at 2-3, three consecutive breaks of serve between the pair allowed Troicki to level the match at one set apiece by serving it out at-love.
The decider gave each player plenty of opportunities to take the advantage with Klizan saving four break points and Troicki one lower at three. A final set tiebreak looked likely, but the second seeded Serbian had other ideas. Troicki broke one last time to reach the final with a 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 win.
Doubles Final Set
In the men's doubles semifinal, it was the battle of Dutch pairings with Wesley Koolhof and Matwe Middelkoop saving two match points in their win over Thiemo de Bakker and Robin Haase. That helped them secure a spot in the first ever doubles championship match at the Garanti Koza Sofia Open.
Haase and de Bakker raced into the lead, taking the first with a one-sided scoreline of 6-2. The second set went all the way to a tiebreak after the third seeds, Middlekoop-Koolhof, saved two match points on their own service game. They clinched the tie-break 7-3 with a dominant display on serve to lead to an exciting final champions tiebreak. The third seeds held a 5-0 lead in the decider, but were pegged back to 9-9 after missing their own match point. They did not dwell too much on the waste of a match point by securing an 11-9 victory in the final set.
It is Koolhof and Middelkoop’s first ever ATP Tour level final after winning all four of their previous finals on the ATP Challenger Tour.
Day Seven Preview
It’s finals day on Sunday with the doubles event due first to be followed by the hotly anticipated singles final. All in all, the inaugural Garanti Koza Sofia Open has been a superb success with the finals promising to bring down the curtain in dramatic style.
Day Seven Order Of Play
Centre Court – 2:45pm
Philipp Oswald / Adil Shamasdin – Wesley Koolhof / Matwe Middelkoop (3)
NOT BEFORE - 3:30pm
(1)Roberto Bautista Agut – Viktor Troicki (2)