Steve Johnson beat Ernests Gulbis 6-3 7-6 (7.4) reaching the first ATP Final of his career. Johnson has become the first US player to reach the Vienna final since 1998 when Pete Sampras beat Karol Kucera. In 1994 another US star André Agassi won the Vienna title beating Michael Stich in the final
Johnson, who is now number 47 in the ATP Ranking and reached three ATP semifinals in his career, has improved his record in his head-to-head matches against against Gulbis to 3-0. In their previous two matches Johnson beat Gulbis 6-7 7-6 6-4 6-4 at the 2012 US Open and 6-4 6-4 in Cincinnati 2014.
Gulbis came into the semifinal with a record of nine wins and 22 defeats this year. Before Vienna the Latvian player lost six consecutive matches since the Roger’s Cup in Montreal. In the Austrian capital he found again his best form beating Lucas Miedler, John Isner and Ivo Karlovic. Johnson beat Alexander Dolgopolov, Jerzy Janowicz and Kevin Anderson.
Johnson won the first service game at deuce. Gulbis made two unforced errors and a double fault on his first service game enabling Johnson to get his only break of the first set Johnson did not face any problems on his serve and pulled away to 5-2. He did not convert two set points on Gulbis’serve but served out for the first set in the ninth game. Johnson won 10 of his 12 second serve points in the first set
Gulbis dropped his serve in the third game of the second set to go down a set and a break. Johnson led 6-3 4-3 when he dropped his serve on the only break point he faced in the entire match. The second set came down to the tie-break. Johnson got an early mini-break with a forehand passing shot before hitting a drop-volley to take a 4-3 lead in the tie-break. The US player brought up three match points at 6-3 after Gulbis made a couple of forehand errors.
Johnson closed out on the second match point with an ace down the middle (it was the 12th ace of his match).
Johnson hit 27 winners to 12 unforced errors. Gulbis fired 23 winners to 29 unforced errors.
