ATP Tour

Tirante downs Tabilo in Stockholm, reaches his first ATP Tour final

Thiago Agustin Tirante shook off some match-closing jitters to hit a personal milestone on Friday afternoon at the Bybit Stockholm Open.

The 25-year-old Argentine overcame fourth seed Alejandro Tabilo 7-5, 7-6(1) to reach his first ATP Tour final at the indoor hard-court tournament. Tirante failed to serve out the match at 5-4 in the second set, but rebounded superbly to dominate the subsequent tie-break and become the first Argentine finalist at an indoor tour-level event since Diego Schwartzman in Antwerp in 2021.

“You always have nerves in matches, and playing a semi-final in front of a lot of people is very special for me,” Tirante said. “At important moments you start [to feel it]. I think I didn’t play a good game [at 5-4], but I kept believing in myself and my team to close it out in the tie-break.”

The No. 51 player in the PIF ATP Rankings, Tirante has now earned a personal-best 31 tour-level wins in 2026. He is now 1-2 in ATP Tour semi-finals, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index.

“I am very happy I am going to play my first ATP final,” Tirante said. “Actually, I am very happy to play it here. This is my third semi-final, and my first one was in Bastad, so I think Sweden [is a good place for me].”

Standing between Tirante and the trophy at the Swedish ATP 250 will be top seed Taylor Fritz or third seed Lorenzo Musetti. Tirante won his only previous Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting with Fritz, in Montreal in August, while he is yet to play a match against Musetti.