Rotterdam: Three-time Major champion, Stan Wawrinka reached his first final, Saturday since his comeback a year ago from left knee surgeries.
The unseeded Wawrinka beat top-seeded Kei Nishikori 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 in the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament semifinals and will now face Frenchman Gael Monfils for the title Sunday. The final is Wawrinka’s first since the 2017 French Open, where he last met Monfils in the fourth round. Monfils ousted the other remaining seed, No.5 Daniil Medvedev, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Wawrinka didn’t serve as well as Nishikori but outplayed the Japanese from the baseline. And his returns never let the Japanese feel comfortable even after winning the second set. The Swiss broke Nishikori decisively at 5-4 in the third set.
If the Swiss triumphs it will be his 17th career title and second in Rotterdam, after winning in 2015.
Monfils had previously reached the Rotterdam final in 2016. He’s going for an eighth career title. After losing the first set he adopted an attacking approach against Medvedev and that paid off. A drop shot gave him breakpoint at 4-4 in the third and he took it forcing an error. He won forcing another error from Medvedev.
“Tactically, I played good and physically I was tough, I was happy that I could handle it physically,” Monfils said. “My game plan was definitely to make him (Medvedev) play a lot of balls and at the end it paid off.”
AP