ATP Tour

Tsitsipas books first final in 16 months, Collignon awaits in Gstaad

Stefanos Tsitsipas is back in an ATP Tour final for the first time in 16 months at the EFG Swiss Open Gstaad.

The 27-year-old Greek on Saturday earned his third consecutive three-set victory by defeating Aleksandr Shevchenko 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in the semi-finals of the clay-court ATP 250. Tsitsipas, the former World No. 3 and 12-time tour-level champion, is now into his first final since lifting the trophy in Dubai last March.

“It was a great fight against Aleksandr,” Tsitsipas said in his on-court interview. “I think we played an incredible match from both sides. It’s unfortunate there has to be a winner at the end. I thought both of us deserved the victory.”

After enduring a difficult second set on serve, Tsitsipas produced a dominant serving display in the decider to pull away. The Greek dropped just one of 12 first-serve points in the third set, according to Infosys ATP Stats, en route to levelling his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Shevchenko at 1-1.

In Sunday's final, Tsitsipas will face first-time ATP Tour finalist Raphael Collignon, who earlier saved a match point to defeat Juan Manuel Cerundolo 1-6, 7-6(5), 7-5 in dramatic fashion.

Collignon saved a match point on serve at 3-5 in the second set before breaking back and edging a tense tie-break. The 24-year-old Belgian then stormed back from 2-5 down in the deciding set, reeling off five consecutive games to seal the two-hour, 26-minute victory.

“We’ve both had long matches,” Tsitsipas said, previewing his final with Collignon, which will be their first meeting. “We both really want it. We’ve come to the end, the two of us, so I feel like no one wants to go out there and not give it their all. It’s one last breath. I want to get out there and take the court by storm.”

With his run to a first tour-level final, which has included three deciding-set victories, Collignon has climbed five places to No. 37 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, guaranteeing himself a new career high on Monday.

“I was very lucky, but I think this time it was for me, because I already lost three times [by] 7-6 in the third,” said Collignon, who lost a third-set tie-break to Cerundolo in the Bordeaux Challenger final in May and in the first round in Eastbourne in June. “For once it turned my way, so I’m very happy to be in the final.”