By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Saturday February 22, 2020
Stefanos Tsitsipas powered past Alexander Bublik for his seventh consecutive win in Marseille.
Photo Source: TTV
A dream final has been set at the Open 13 Provence, where defending champion Stefanos Tsitsipas and Felix Auger-Aliassime will meet for the title on Sunday.
Tsitsipas stretched his run of formidable play at Marseille to seven consecutive matches and 14 consecutive sets won with a 7-5 6-3 victory over Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik. Auger-Aliassime followed suit with a hard-fought victory over two-time champion Gilles Simon 7-5 7-6(2).
Tsitsipas and Auger-Aliassime have met three times previously at the ATP level with the Canadian claiming the first two meetings and Tsitsipas winning their last.
Tsitsipas was broken for the first time all tournament in the opening set against World No. 55 Bublik while serving for the opening set at 5-3, but he rebounded from 5-5 to take the final two games and clinch the set.
The top-seeded Greek broke for 3-1 in the second set and that would be all he needed as he won 20 of 21 service points in the set to keep Bublik at bay.
“It keeps getting better and better,” Stefanos said of his success in Marseille. “I can’t wait to show an even better Stefanos tomorrow.”
Auger-Aliassime had to rally from behind in the opening set against Simon, but he mounted a massive rally and claimed the last five games of the 61-minute set to take it 7-5.
The second set was even closer against Simon, who dropped to 29-12 lifetime at Marseille, but the Canadian was able to dominate the second-set tiebreaker after neither player faced a break point in the set on serve.
Auger-Aliassime is fresh off of reaching the Rotterdam final. He dropped to 0-4 in title matches there when he fell to Gael Monfils.
Tsitsipas is 4-5 in ATP finals.
Nicolas Mahut and Vasek Pospisil will face Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektic in the doubles final.