Yannick Hanfmann’s fairytale week will continue at the J. Safra Sarasin Swiss Open Gstaad after upsetting 2016 finalist Robin Haase on Saturday. The German qualifier claimed his sixth win in seven days in stunning fashion, saving four match points to reach his first ATP World Tour final.

To say Hanfmann has earned his spot in the Gstaad final is an understatement. The World No. 170, who is appearing in just his third ATP World Tour main draw, claimed his fourth win in a deciding set this week, notably battling past defending champion Feliciano Lopez and rallying from a set down to defeat eighth seed Joao Sousa. On Saturday, he needed two hours and 28 minutes to deny Haase a return trip to the final.

“This means a lot to me,” said Hanfmann. “Reaching my first final after saving four match points today is amazing. I really like the conditions here and the altitude suits my game. The ball bounces higher here. Tomorrow I will be the outsider again and I will give everything. I never expected to reach the final at the beginning of the week.”

Hanfmann recovered nicely after falling down a set and an immediate break to open the second. He would break right back and later saved a pair of match points in the ensuing tie-break, reeling off four straight points from 6/4 down to force a decider. There, he would turn aside two more match points while serving to stay in the match at 6-5 and proved to be one step ahead in the deciding tie-break.

Hanfmann made his ATP World Tour debut on the clay of Munich in May, reaching the quarter-finals, and advanced to the second round on the grass of Stuttgart last month, before claiming his big breakthrough this week. His run to a first tour-level final comes just two months after reaching his first ATP Challenger Tour title match in Shymkent, Uzbekistan (l. to Berankis). At No. 170 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, he is the lowest-ranked ATP World Tour finalist since No. 249 Matthew Ebden in Newport a week ago.

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Awaiting Hanfmann is the final is fourth seed Fabio Fognini, who rallied to defeat second seed Roberto Bautista Agut 5-7, 6-2, 6-3. Fognini improves his FedEx ATP Head2Head over Bautista Agut to 5-2 and has won both of their meetings on clay.

“I’m happy because my first match here was a horrible feeling, but I’m feeling better day by day. My game has improved,” said Fognini. “Tomorrow is going to be a tough match because he’s beaten a lot of good players. I saw him play this whole week and told my team that he’s going to be dangerous. But I’m going to go for it and try to win the title.” 

Fognini has done it the hard way this week, winning all three of his matches in a deciding set. Saturday’s victory puts the Italian into his first ATP World Tour singles final since this past October in Moscow (l. Carreno Busta). He’s looking for his first title since prevailing 12 months ago in Umag (d. Martin).

Eysseric/Skugor Move Into Final

Fourth seeds Jonathan Eysseric and Franko Skugor didn’t face a break point in reaching the final over Sander Arends and Robin Haase 6-3, 6-4. Awaiting them in Sunday’s championship match are second seeds Oliver Marach and Philipp Oswald. Marach reached the Wimbledon doubles final earlier this month with Mate Pavic (l. Kubot/Melo).

For the second straight week, a Lucky Loser will vie for an ATP World Tour title after Leonardo Mayer dismissed Federico Delbonis at the German Tennis Championships 2017 in Hamburg.

Mayer, who lifted the trophy in 2014, needed one hour and 24 minutes to defeat his countryman 6-3, 7-5, firing six aces while claiming an impressive 76 per cent of total service points. The 30 year old will appear in his fourth final on the ATP World Tour and first since finishing runner-up to Dominic Thiem in Nice in 2015. His lone title came here at the Am Rothenbaum the year prior.

“Today, I played very well,” said Mayer. “It’s never easy to play a friend. Federico is one of the best players on a clay court. It wasn’t easy for me, but I’m very happy for this win. I hope I can keep it going tomorrow.”

It has been a stunnning run to the final for Mayer, who rebounded after falling to German wild card Rudolf Molleker in the final round of qualifying on Sunday. He would enter the main draw after Martin Klizan withdrew due to a calf injury and proceeded to edge top seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas in a deciding tie-break in the first round. Mayer would not drop a set from then on, streaking to the final. He is looking to continue to good fortunes of Lucky Losers in recent weeks, following #NextGenATP star Andrey Rublev’s maiden title last week in Umag.

Mayer extended his FedEx ATP Head2Head over Delbonis to 3-1, taking their first encounter since earning a qualifying win five years ago at the 2012 Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters. He will next face a German for the title, with Florian Mayer and Philipp Kohlshcreiber set to square off in Saturday’s second semi-final.

World No. 138 Mayer will see his position in the Emirates ATP Rankings soar after reaching the final. The former World No. 21 is projected to break back into the Top 100 for the first time in more than a year after a shoulder injury hampered his progress in 2016. It marks the second straight week a player outside the Top 100 is in an ATP World Tour final, after No. 263 Matthew Ebden featured in the Newport final.

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Five years after reaching his maiden ATP Challenger Tour semi-final, Christian Harrison has accomplished that feat once again at the $75,000 event in Binghamton. The American defeated No. 2 seed and #NextGenATP player Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan in a highly competitive three-set match on Friday. 

It’s safe to say plenty has happened since Harrison’s previous Challenger semi-final in Lexington in July 2012. The 23 year old endured a bone infection and seven surgeries that took him out of competition for more than two years. But despite the setbacks, Harrison never considered quitting and has been rewarded for his persistence.

“It’s amazing. My first Challenger semi-final was five years ago, so it’s something I’ve put a lot of thought into as I’ve been working towards my goals,” said Harrison. “The [Emirates ATP Rankings] points help my ranking out a lot now, which means a lot, so I’m really excited about it. 

“The main thing that’s helped this year is just being able to play a full schedule and keeping momentum. You can’t replicate match play in practice, so if you have to keep taking a couple of months off after playing two tournaments, you can’t build that momentum,” he added. “You might have a couple of good tournaments a year, but your ranking doesn’t reflect that.”

The momentum has led to a current career-high Emirates ATP Ranking of No. 276 that will move up even more after his Binghamton run. In order to avoid another lengthy injury setback, Harrison has radically altered the way he trains in a bid to stay healthy.

“One of the main things that’s important now is listening to injuries. If I feel some pains, I may not just try and tough it out like I used to,” said Harrison. “I changed my pre and post-match routines before and after practice by doing a lot more active cool downs instead of sitting or static stretching. I’m doing the right things off the court to stay healthy and keep my body fresh, which gives me a lot of confidence on the court as well.

“And then from a mental side, you can get in your head when you’re feeling hurt and overthink things too much,” he added. “Getting that confidence that your body is going to stay healthy has been really important.”

Harrison will now look to reach his first Challenger final when he plays Cameron Norrie of Great Britain on Saturday. But regardless of what happens in this match, the American said he’ll only have positives to take from Binghamton.

“I’ve really enjoyed this tournament a lot,” said Harrison. “The stands are really nice and the courts are great. It’s really nice to be in a hotel that’s within walking distance of food. We’ve gone to Lost Dog probably every night since being here!” 

Second seed John Isner improved to 25-4 at the BB&T Atlanta Open with a dominant 7-5, 6-4 quarter-final win on Friday over Lukas Lacko.

“I think most importantly, I’m at home in the United States and playing on my favorite surface. It’s one of the reasons I do well,” said Isner. “I don’t want to jinx it, but I’ve always played well here. I love this tournament and have fortunately been healthy enough to keep coming back here.”

Going back to his title win last week in Newport (d. Ebden), the American has held in 60 consecutive service games. He faced a break point at 3-4 in the opening set against Lacko, his first in 53 service games, but got out of trouble with a big serve. Isner captured the lone break in each set to advance in 73 minutes.

Isner has reached the semi-finals in Atlanta for all eight years of the tournament’s existence, and played in the final for six of the past seven years. He won the tournament in 2013-2015 and finished runner-up in 2010, 2011 and 2016.

Next up for Isner is third seed Gilles Muller, who comfortably dispatched qualifier and #NextGenATP American Tommy Paul 6-3, 6-1. Muller fired 16 aces and broke his opponent four times in the contest. The 34 year old, currently at a career-high Emirates ATP Ranking of No. 22, moves into his fifth ATP World Tour semi-final of the season.

Isner leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head with Muller 3-2, but Muller has won their past two matches. However, Isner has won both of their previous meetings in Atlanta, with the American scoring deciding-set wins in 2010 and 2011.

“It’s certainly going to be a heavyweight fight tomorrow,” said Isner. “I know he’s beaten me a few times and I’ve beaten him a few times. There’s usually a tie-break involved because of how we both serve. We’re both playing with a lot of confidence. It should be a very good tilt and I’m looking forward to it.”

Fourth seed Ryan Harrison ended the dream run of fellow American and college tennis star Christopher Eubanks with a 6-1, 6-2 victory. Eubanks, a rising senior at Georgia Tech, won his first two ATP World Tour main draw matches this week and clearly thrived on playing in his hometown. But he was no match for the more experienced Harrison, who didn’t face a break point and needed just 55 minutes to secure the win.

Awaiting Harrison in the semi-finals will be top seed Jack Sock or fifth seed Kyle Edmund. Harrison hasn’t played Edmund before, but is even with Sock in their FedEx ATP Head2Head at 1-1. Sock won their most recent match this past January in Auckland. 

#NextGenATP Akira Santillan feels like now is his time to flourish on the ATP World Tour.

The 20 year old recently earned the biggest victories of his career – winning his first ATP Challenger Tour title earlier this month in Winnetka and claiming his first ATP World Tour win at the Dell Technologies Hall of Fame Open in Newport (d. Mmoh).

Santillan has also resolved a nagging dilemma that had been weighing on his mind and affecting his play: Which country should he represent?

The right-hander was born in Japan to his South African father, Dean, and his Japanese mother, Harumi. But the family moved to Australia for Akira’s tennis when he was about seven, and Akira lived Down Under until he was about 18. (He trains in Spain now.)

In early 2015, Santillan decided to play under the Japanese flag. But at Wimbledon, he switched his allegiance to Australia.

“My parents live in Australia. My dad has been living in Australia since he was 13, and I’ve been living there since I was seven… For me, I felt more comfortable playing for Australia,” Santillan exclusively told ATPWorldTour.com. “I’ve been thinking about it for at least over a year now… I felt like I needed to make a decision. I can’t be always wondering in my mind who I’m going to play for, so I think that has cleared things up a bit. It lets me play a little bit freer.”

The relaxed feeling helped Santillan experience his milestone wins in Illinois and Rhode Island. Before Winnetka, Santillan had reached three ATP Challenger Tour semi-finals but he had fallen in the third set during all three. They had been close deciders, too: 7-5, 6-4, 6-4.

In Illinois, after he took the first set 6-4 against German Matthias Bachinger, Santillan later admitted doubts snuck into his mind.

“I was winning comfortably and then I had a hiccup and I found myself in the third set, and I was thinking about it a little bit again,” Santillan said of his past semi-final losses. “But I got through that… I just focused on my game. I was playing really well so there was no reason to be really tight or anything. I went through, won the third set quite comfortably and then the final was pretty straightforward. I played really well, pretty smart tennis. Overall I was really happy with the tournament.”

At the grass-court tournament in Newport, Santillan’s aggressive game thrived as he earned his first ATP World Tour win during his third attempt. “I played really well, and I’m pretty pleased with myself,” Santillan said.

The right-hander’s game favours such quick surfaces. Santillan tries to play an all-around game, a necessity during this era of tennis that has been dominated by do-everything players Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

“I play pretty aggressive with my forehand… I can play anywhere on the court. I like to come to the net. Change pace on my slice. Use my forehand to dominate play. I think I have a pretty good serve, a pretty big serve,” Santillan said. “You need every weapon that you can get. On the tour nowadays, everyone has a weapon – they can defend, they can attack, they’ve got everything.”

Santillan has other big goals to complete this season. The #NextGenATP Aussie, No. 160 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, would like to crack the Top 100. He’d like to qualify for the US Open, the season’s last Grand Slam tournament.

Santillan also might find his way into the Next Gen ATP Finals, to be held 7-11 November in Milan. He is currently in 16^th place in the Emirates ATP Race To Milan, which will determine seven of the eight 21-and-under players who compete at the inaugural event. The eighth player will be chosen by wild card. Santillan is 222 points behind eighth-placed American Jared Donaldson.

“I feel really confident right now with my game. I feel like I’m seeing the ball like a basketball,” Santillan said. “It’s going to be fun and exciting to see how I can do.”

See Who’s Leading The Emirates ATP Race To Milan

Robin Haase came alive in The Alps once more, just as he has done in two previous runs to the J. Safra Sarasin Swiss Open Gstaad final, when the Dutchman ended David Goffin’s bid for a third ATP World Tour title on Friday.

Haase began in fine style by breaking for a 2-0 lead, and while his top-seeded Belgium opponent stayed in contention, World No. 50 Haase won seven straight games from 5-5 in the first set en route to a 7-5, 6-1 victory in 81 minutes. It was his first win in four meetings against Goffin, the 2015 runner-up (l. to Thiem).

“Today it was a bit more windy and we were both a bit nervous at the beginning,” said Haase. “I really enjoy the conditions here and I’m happy to be back in the semi-finals.”

Sixth seed Haase, the 2013 (l. to Youzhny) and 2016 finalist (l. to Lopez), now faces qualifier Yannick Hanfmann. The World No. 170 could not convert two set point opportunities in the first set, but bounced back to knock out eighth seed Joao Sousa 6-7(10), 6-2, 6-2 in one hour and 56 minutes. Hanfmann, who has played just eight tour-level matches, could not seal set point chances at 7/6 and 9/8 in the first set tie-break.

Second seed Roberto Bautista Agut lost just six of his first-service points to beat Denis Istomin 6-3, 6-4 in 80 minutes to improve to a 31-12 match record in 2017. “Today, the conditions were a bit faster than the other days and Denis played aggressively,” said Bautista Agut. “I will prepare and rest well for tomorrow.”

The Spaniard next faces fourth seed Fabio Fognini, who broke Ernests Gulbis three times to advance 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 in one hour and 50 minutes. Gulbis had led their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 4-1, including 2-0 on clay, before Friday.

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Marach/Oswald Advance To Doubles Final
Second-seeded Austrians Oliver Marach and Philipp Oswald booked their place in the Gstaad final by beating third seeds Roman Jebavy and Matwe Middelkoop 6-3, 6-3 in 60 minutes. Marach, 15-21 in doubles finals, partnered Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi to the 2015 title match (l. to Bury-Istomin). Oswald will be looking to improve his 4-2 record in finals.

Fourth seeds Jonathan Eysseric and Franko Skugor will take on Dutchmen Sander Arends and Haase in the other semi-final on Saturday.