MUNICH: Nikoloz Basilashvili set up a meeting with Jan-Lennard Struff in the Munich Open final by winning two matches on Saturday. Basilashvili was leading 5-4 in his quarterfinal with Norbert Gombos when it was suspended on Friday due to rain.
The Georgian served out the first set on Saturday and broke Gombos once in the second for a 6-4, 6-4 win. He then blew away Casper Ruud 6-1, 6-2 in the semifinals, breaking the Norwegian five times. Ruud, too, was playing his second match of the day after beating John Millman 6-3, 6-4.
Their quarterfinal was suspended on Friday following the first set. Struff made his first tour final after ending a seven-match losing run in semifinals by stopping in-form qualifier Ilya Ivashka 6-4, 6-1. Struff recovered from 3-1 down in the first set, winning 11 of the next 13 games.
At 44th in the world, Struff shed his record of being the highest-ranked men's player never to have played an ATP singles final. Ivashka had beaten two-time Munich champion Alexander Zverev in the previous round and went 10-2 on clay last month.