Nicolas Mahut and Vasek Pospisil saved a match point during a 6-7(7), 7-6(6), 10/4 win over Henri Kontinen and John Peers, advancing to the Rotterdam doubles final in their second tournament as a team. Mahut/Pospisil had joined forced in Rotterdam last year, but fell in the opening around against Julien Benneteau and Edouard Roger-Vasselin.

Mahut showed great resilience in returning to the court shortly after losing a tightly contested singles semi-final against Martin Klizan.

“We’re happy we got through today,” Pospisil said after the match. “We had chances in the first set so it was disappointing to lose that one but we competed well and stayed patient. After winning that second set we took the momentum into the third and played a great Match Tie-break.

“Nico and I are enjoying this week and it’s a pleasure playing with such a great guy. We’re going to go into the final tomorrow with the same energy, play our games, and take it to our opponents.”

In the doubles final, the French-Canadian duo will take on Philipp Petzschner and Alexander Peya, who edged top seeds Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau 7-6(5), 3-6, 11/9. The favourites held three match points at 9-6 in the Match Tie-break, but Petzschner/Peya reeled off five straight points to shock the defending champions.

“I think it was a very high level match that came down to a few points in the end,” said Peya. “Being down 6-9 in the breaker you always need a little luck as well, but we stayed positive and tried to hang in until the last point. Tomorrow will be another very tough one and we need to bring our best again, but we are looking forward very much.”

Cervantes/Lorenzi To Face Top Seeds In Buenos Aires
Inigo Cervantes and Paolo Lorenzi downed Argentines Federico Delbonis and Andres Molteni 7-6(5), 7-5 to set up a final encounter against top seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah. The Spanish-Italian duo improved to 3-1 as a team after falling in the first round of Quito last week (l. to Bellucci/Demoliner) in their first outing.

Memphis Final Set

Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Santiago Gonzalez survived a marathon two-hour and four-minute semi-final encounter against Oliver Marach and Fabrice Martin 6-7(7), 7-5, 15-13. The Polish-Mexican duo saved three match points.

There seems to be no stopping Taylor Fritz this week at the Memphis Open. The 18-year-old American put himself in elite company on Saturday, rallying past Ricardas Berankis 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 to reach his first ATP World Tour final.

At 18 years and three months, Fritz became the youngest American to reach a tour-level final since then 17-year-old Michael Chang won the Wembley 1989 crown. He is also the first American teenager in a title match since Andy Roddick finished runner-up in Montreal in 2002, and is the second teen finalist on the ATP World Tour this year, following Borna Coric‘s run in Chennai (l. to Wawrinka).

“It’s the best feeling in the world,” said Fritz. “To be here and think that it’s the final is crazy. I’m really excited that I got to this level and I’ve proven myself that I belong here.

“It’s amazing to have this support. I feel so loved here. It’s the best feeling in the world. I owe a lot to the crowd pumping me up.”

Fritz was on the ropes early as Berankis ran away with the opening set behind three breaks of serve. But the wild card shed his nerves as the match progressed. Cool under pressure as he has been all week, Fritz stayed the course after being broken to love in the seventh game of the second set. He broke back immediately and would force a decider. In the third, the 18 year old earned a pair of breaks on Berankis double faults, eventually closing it out on his fifth match point after one hour and 41 minutes.

“I honestly felt he was unbeatable in the first set,” Fritz added. “He was making me look awful. I didn’t think there was much I could do. I tried to change things up in my game. He was returning my serves and putting me on defence. In the second set, I told myself that the way I was serving wasn’t going to cut it. I needed to crank it up a lot. I started hitting my serves 5-10 miles per hour faster. That was the biggest difference. Once I was holding my serve, it put pressure on him. That’s what allowed me to play my game more and allowed me to win.”

Fritz, who closed his 2015 campaign with two ATP Challenger Tour titles (Sacramento & Fairfield) in three finals and opened 2016 with a win in Happy Valley, Australia, is making a seamless transition to the ATP World Tour. Competing in just his third tour-level event, he is already well ahead of the curve:

Tournaments Played To Reach First Final (current Top 10)

The California native’s rise to the precipice of the Top 100 of the Emirates ATP Rankings is astounding, having resided at World No. 935 a year ago. He is bidding to become the first teen to earn an ATP World Tour title since Marin Cilic in New Haven 2008, when he battles either top seed Kei Nishikori or fellow American Sam Querrey on Sunday. The most recent American winner in Memphis was Andy Roddick in 2011. Roddick, Andre Agassi and Stefan Edberg are the lone teenage champions in the 40-year history of the ATP World Tour 250 event.

Berankis, meanwhile, was competing in his second ATP World Tour semi-final, following a run to the last four in Los Angeles 2012.

“I was very close,” said Berankis. “I played very well in the first set. Everything was working. In the second set, I started to play a little more careful and Taylor took his chances and was all over me… You always have to keep up the plan and continue the same way throughout the match.”

Dominic Thiem, the youngest member of the Top 20, saved a match point before downing defending champion Rafael Nadal in a classic 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(4) semi-final victory at the Argentina Open on Saturday.

The top-seeded Nadal opened the match by breaking Thiem’s serve, but the Austrian fought back strongly to take the first set. Nadal had looked vulnerable at times in straight-set wins over Juan Monaco and Paolo Lorenzi, and the youngster’s power and athleticism had the former World No. 1 searching for solutions.

Nadal appeared lacking in confidence, but the lefty’s resistance never waned. He snuck away with the second set by breaking Thiem in the 10^th game, when the World No. 19’s serving arm tightened just enough for Nadal to impose his will.

A back-and-forth deciding set saw Thiem save match point at 4-5, then hold off Nadal in a deciding tie-break to prevent the Spaniard from becoming the sixth player in the Open Era to reach 100 tour-level finals. The pair’s FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry now stands at 1-1, Nadal having won their lone previous meeting at Roland Garros 2014.

The 22-year-old Austrian, seeded fifth, improves to 2-10 after dropping eight matches in a row against Top 10 opponents. He is into his fifth career ATP World Tour final, all on clay.

David Ferrer had all night to think about how to finish off Pablo Cuevas, finally winning a rain-delayed 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 quarter-final match on Saturday in Buenos Aires.

The match was slated to finish on Friday night, but a warm and humid day turned into a stormy evening, forcing tournament organizers to interrupt play midway through the first set. Ferrer and Cuevas had not met at tour-level since 2010 (2-0 for Ferrer), and the Uruguayan finally won his first set in their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry before succumbing.

The second-seeded Ferrer will return to the court later on Saturday to face countryman Nicolas Almagro in the semi-finals. Almagro is in top form, having upset third seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Friday, but has never topped Ferrer in 15 tour-level confrontations. They will take to the court at 3:30pm local time.