Martin Klizan fought back from losing the first set at the tie-break to clinch another thrilling three-set win over French wild-card Nicolas Mahut with 6-7 (3-7) 7-6 (9-7) 6-2 after saving three match points in the second set.
One day after fending off five match points against Roberto Bautista Agut in the quarter final, the “King of Comebacks” Klizan had to save three more match points in the second set to complete another dramatic fightback against Mahut in today’s semifinal.
The first set came down to the tie-break where Mahut sealed the win with 7-3 as Klizan made a double fault on the set point after 46 minutes. Mahut fired 16 aces and won 30 of his 50 points at the net.
Mahut, who was playing his first ATP 500 semifinal, got the first break of the match in the seventh game of the second set to take a 4-3 lead and held his serve in the next game.
Klizan converted his break-back point when Mahut was serving for the match at 5-4. In the tie-break Klizan saved two match points at 6-4 and one more at 7-6.
Klizan converted his third set point to clinch the second set with 9-7 in the tie-break with a drive volley.
Klizan went up a double break at the start of the third set and in the fifth game to pull away to 5-1. The Slovakian player served for the match at 5-2 and converted his second match point to take the decider 6-2. Klizan fired 45 winners
Klizan won all his three finals at ATP level in St. Petersburg 2012, Munich 2014 and Casablanca in 2015.
“It’s unbelievable that I was still able to win the match. Mahut was playing better until the end of the second set, maybe I was the luckiest. I cannot wait to play my first ATP 500 final in Rotterdam”, said Klizan.
