Second seed Jannik Sinner beat French Next Gen rising star Arthur Fils 7-5 6-2 in a hard-fought match to reach the eighth ATP Tour final of his career and the first of the season at the Open Sud de France in Montpellier.
Fils saved three break points in the opening game of the first set. Sinner dropped two points on his first four service games, but he had to fend off two set points at 4-5 15-40 on serve in the first set. Sinner earned his first break in the 11th game at deuce and served it out on his third set point in the 12th game.
Sinner earned two breaks in the first and third games of the second set at deuce and sealed the win on his third match point.
“I am very happy to be in my first final of the season. We practiced very hard to play some big matches. It does not matter what kind of tournanment, every tournament when you go far is very good. I am very happy to be in the final here. Fils beat incredible players, so I knew I had to play at a very high level. He is very strong and has great groundstrokes. Maybe I had a bit of experience on him in the first set and I got a bit luck”, said Sinner.
Fils beat Richard Gasquet, Roberto Bautista Agut and Quentin Halys earlier this week en route to his first semifinal at his second ATP Tour tournament. Fils, who reached the final in the French Open Junior tournament, has become the first player born after Carlos Alcaraz to reach an ATP Tour semifinal.
Sinner set up a final against US Maxime Cressy, who battled past last year’s Paris Bercy Masters 1000 champion Holger Rune 7-5 6-7 (3-7) 7-6 (7-4) in 2 hours and 37 minutes.
Rune saved a break point in the fourth game of the first set. Cressy earned the only break of the match in the 12th game with a backhand to win the first set 7-5. Both players went on serve with break points en route to the tie-break. Rune earned three mini-breaks to race out to a 5-1 lead and closed out the tie-break 7-3 on his first set point. The third set also went on serve with no break points. Cressy earned three match points at 6-3 with two mini-breaks. Rune saved the first match point with a backhand return winner, but Cressy sealed the win on his second opportunity.
Cressy will chase his second ATP Tour title after winning his maiden trophy in Newport in 2022. The US player of French origin scored his second top-10 win after beating Felix Auger Aliassime at Wimbledon last year.
Rune did not earn a single break point in the whole match. The Danish player reached four finals in his most recent indoor tournaments in Sofia, Stockolm, Basel and Paris Bercy.
“Jannik Sinner is an incredible player, like Holger Rune and everyone else in the tournament. I have to find my best game every time and I am looking forward to it”,said Cressy.
