By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Saturday October 23, 2021
Diego Schwartzman reeled off the final eight games to top rising American Jenson Brooksby at Antwerp.
Photo Source: European Open
Diego Schwartzman shifted gears and raced past American Jenson Brooksby, claiming the final eight games to book a 6-4, 6-0 victory and a spot in Sunday’s European Open final alongside Italy’s Jannik Sinner.
Earlier on Saturday 20-year-old Sinner booked his fifth final of the 2021 season, racing past Lloyd Harris of South Africa, 6-2, 6-2.
Sinner and Schwartzman have never met before on the ATP Tour.
It’s an important win for Sinner, who can pull within of 110 points of the last qualifying spot for this year’s ATP Finals in Turin if he claims the title at Antwerp.
“It is a long way,” he said on Saturday. “There is still this tournament and then three to go. I have to play well in Vienna and well in Paris and there are other incredible players trying to get there. Hopefully this year, but if not I can be happy about my season.”
Schwartzman is also hanging on to hope of reaching the ATP Finals for a second consecutive year. The two-time Antwerp finalist can move up to 14th in the race if he can defeat Sinner on Sunday.
Schwartzman improved to 12-4 lifetime at Antwerp with a suffocating performance against the young American. He broke five times on nine opportunities and won 27 of 47 return points overall.
“It’s always tough when you play against an opponent that you never played before,” Schwartzman said. “So the first games you always try to figure out, how he’s going to play, how I’m going to play, and how you feel the ball in the afternoon… I was just trying to put every ball in in the first game, trying to feel if he was a little bit nervous or not.
"It was very long but at the end I think the first set helped me because in the second I think he was not able to keep playing as he did in the first set, I think he was very tense, but I kept the rhythm in the second so I think that’s why I was best in the second set.”