Paire Saves 1 M.P. To Edge Goffin; Zverev Into SFs

Benoit Paire won the match of the day at the Moselle Open on Friday, saving one match point to knock out 2014 champion and top-seeded Belgian David Goffin. The Frenchman dented Goffin’s hopes of making up ground in the Emirates ATP Race To London with a 7-6(3), 5-7, 7-6(7) victory over two hours and 25 minutes in Metz.

Paire recovered from a 2-4 deficit in the first set, prior to being broken by Goffin at 5-5 in the second set. Goffin took a 4-2 lead in the decider, then fought back from 3/5 down in the tie-break only to squander a match point at 6/5. It was Paire’s third win in four meetings over Goffin.

Paire, who is 0-4 in semi-finals this year, next meets World No. 64 Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili, who defeated Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin 7-5, 6-3 after saving the four break points he faced. The 25-year-old claimed his 24th match win of the year, which is double the number of victories he’d had in his career before this season.

Mischa Zverev will attempt to reach the Moselle Open final for the second time on Saturday when he plays fellow German and qualifier Peter Gojowczyk. No German has ever captured the title at the ATP World Tour 250 tournament – Philipp Kohlschreiber finished runner-up in 2009 (l. to Monfils)

Fifth seed Zverev fought past big-serving lucky loser Kenny de Schepper 7-5, 7-6(4) in one hour and 31 minutes. Seven years ago, Zverev qualified en route to his first ATP World Tour title match (l. to Simon).

Gojowczyk, currently No. 95 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, recorded his second straight win (also 2017 Wimbledon) over Romania’s Marius Copil 6-2, 6-4 in 56 minutes. He won the first four games of the pair’s second meeting for his 10th tour-level match win of 2017.

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Mirnyi Denied Milestone Doubles Win
Wesley Koolhof and Artem Sitak denied Max Mirnyi the 750th match win of his career when ‘The Beast’ partnered Philipp Oswald. Koolhof and Sitak won 6-4, 3-6, 10-7 in 74 minutes for a place in their second team final (2017 BB&T Atlanta Open, l. to Bryans).

They will challenge a French pair, Paul-Henri Mathieu and Paire or third seeds Julien Benneteau and Edouard Roger-Vasselin, who will contest their semi-final on Saturday.