Bedene Continues Dream Run In Budapest

Aljaz Bedene continued his outstanding play on Saturday at the Gazprom Hungarian Open in Budapest, sweeping past fellow qualifier Laslo Djere 6-2, 6-4 to reach the final.

“The first set was very solid. I made a few more errors in the second set, but I was serving well the whole match and it helped,” said Bedene. “I was working really hard in the pre-season and staying solid, so I’m really happy with how I’m playing. It’s great to play in a final.”

Next up for the Brit in the final is either top seed Lucas Pouille or sixth seed Paolo Lorenzi. Pouille leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head with Bedene 1-0 after claiming victory this February in Marseille.

Bedene is through to his second ATP World Tour final, having finished runner-up in Chennai in January 2015 (l. Wawrinka). He has been in red-hot form throughout April, winning back-to-back ATP Challenger Tour titles in Sophia Antipolis and Barletta. Including his wins in the Budapest qualifying draw, the 27-year-old Brit is riding a 16-match win streak.

Bedene dropped just three points in racing out a 4-0 lead in the opening set before eventually taking the early advantage. The Brit only needed a single break of serve in the second set at 3-3 to clinch the match in 77 minutes.

Despite the loss, the 22-year-old Djere, currently No. 184 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, completed a career-best week by reaching his first ATP World Tour semi-final.

DOUBLES

Third seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah are through to the final after defeating Robin Haase and Dominic Inglot 6-3, 6-7, 10-3. This is the third ATP World Tour doubles final of 2017 for the Colombian Power, having won the title in Buenos Aires (d. Gonzalez/Marrero) and finished runner-up in Rio de Janeiro (l. Cuevas/Carreno Busta).

Awaiting them in the championship are third seeds Brian Baker and Nikola Mektic, who also seek their second title together in 2017 after prevailing this February in Memphis (d. Harrison/Johnson).