Yannick Hanfmann saved four match points en route to the Gstaad final as he beat Robin Haase 3-6 7-6(6) 7-6(4).
The World number 170, who had to qualify for the tournament has beaten players such as Feliciano Lopez and Joao Sousa on his way to his first ATP World Tour final. He was also a set and a break down to his Dutch opponent and saved four match points to win the match in 2 hours and 27 minutes to reach the final in Switzerland. This shows that the 25 year old was very persistent and showed great resistance to claim the match. Below you can see how the match ended:
https://twitter.com/TennisTV/status/891269273007472641
After the contest Hanfmann couldn’t believe the week he had, ‘This means a lot to me, Reaching my first final after saving four match points today is amazing. I really like the conditions here and the altitude suits my game. The ball bounces higher here. Tomorrow I will be the outsider again and I will give everything. I never expected to reach the final at the beginning of the week.’
It has been a fabulous week for Hanfmann which has really come out of nowhere in his second ATP World Tour tournament. He will now play Italian Fabio Fognini who will play his first final of the season. Fognini beat second seed Roberto Bautista Agut 5-7 6-2 6-3. The difference was in the break point conversion, while Bautista Agut only broke once in 13 opportunities, the opportunistic Italian converted all four of his opportunities to break.
Fognini is fully aware of what he is up against tomorrow and isn’t getting carried away, ‘I’m happy because my first match here was a horrible feeling, but I’m feeling better day by day. My game has improved. Tomorrow is going to be a tough match because he’s beaten a lot of good players. I saw him play this whole week and told my team that he’s going to be dangerous. But I’m going to go for it and try to win the title.’
Tomorrow’s final between Yannick Hanfmann and Fabio Fognini will take place at 11:30am local time.
