Belgium’s David Goffin continued his unbeaten run in Asia with a hard fought 7-6(3), 7-6(6), win over Diego Schwartzman in the semifinals of the Japan Open.
The fourth seed, who won the Shenzhen Open title last week, is now on an eight-match winning streak. Facing Schwartzman, the Belgian was tested in a tightly contested encounter with 16 consecutive games occurring before the first break of the match occurred. Both players recorded impressive figures behind their first serve. Goffin claimed 79% behind his first serve compared to 80% for Schwartzman.
In a match of fine margins, it was Goffin’s ability to play better on the pressure points that proved pivotal. In the opening tiebreaker, Goffin’s breakthrough occurred when he hit a clean forehand winner for a 4-2 lead. Eight seeded Schwartzman was unable to respond, hitting an unforced error at 6-3 to hand the Goffin the opening set.
The cat and mouse chase continued into the second set with both players resilient in their play. Goffin was on course to cruise to the finish line after breaking for a 3-2 lead, but got broken for the first time whilst serving for the match at 5-4. Heading into another tiebreaker, both men continued to tame each other until the closing stages. At 6-6 disaster struck for Argentinian fans when a Schwartzman double fault handed the third seed his second match point. Victory was then sealed when a 16-shot rally concluded with a Shwartzman unforced error.
“Today was a tough match, I knew it would be a match with a lot of rallies,” Goffin told atpworldtour.com. “I knew that Diego would be very solid from the baseline, so I needed to be solid and aggressive too, sometimes finishing at the net. I think I served well throughout the match, maybe not towards the end, but I’m happy to win in two sets. It was a great match, when we both played our best tennis.”
Hitting a total of 27 winners, Goffin has boosted his chances of qualifying for the year-end ATP World Tour Finals in London. He now lies in tenth place in the Race to London, which is the final qualification spot available. The 26-year-old made his debut at the season-ending event last year as an alternate, losing to Novak Djokovic in straight sets.
Mannarino Stuns Cilic
Goffin’s opponent in Sunday’s final will be underdog Adrian Mannarino, who will be seeking his first ATP title at the age of 29. The Frenchman staged a triumphant comeback to knock out top seed Marin Cilic 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-0.
After dropping the opening set and saving a trio of break points at the start of the second, Mannarino eventually wore down an inconsistent Cilic, who hit 32 winners to 49 unforced errors. Breaking two consecutive times to force a decider, the world No.31 cruised through the third set by winning 28 out of the 44 points played.
Mannarino has now recorded his first ever win over a top five player to reach his maiden ATP 500 final. He has a 0-2 head-to-head record against Goffin, but hasn’t played him since the 2015 Swiss Indoors in Basel.
