Sinner Serves Past Griekspoor, Sets Medvedev Final Clash In Rotterdam

Jannik Sinner delivered a flawless serving performance on Saturday to defeat home wild card Tallon Griekspoor and reach the championship match at the ABN AMRO Open in Rotterdam.

The Italian did not face a break point in his 7-5, 7-6(5) semi-final victory against the World No. 61 at the indoor ATP 500 event. Although Griekspoor competed fiercely in a richly entertaining encounter packed with clean baseline hitting and some deft volleying, Sinner’s ability to take his chances ultimately proved decisive.

“I felt a lot of pressure today,” acknowledged Sinner, when asked about how it felt taking on home favourite Griekspoor. “I’m very happy with how I handled it, it was not easy from my side. I tried to play aggressive tennis. Sometimes I managed to do it, sometimes not, but this is part of the game.

“I’m very happy with how I played the tie-break also… [I’m] very happy to be again in a final, and tomorrow is obviously going to be a tough, tough challenge.”

The World No. 14, who has only been broken three times across his four matches this week at the Rotterdam Ahoy, converted the only break point of the match in the 12th game to claim the opening set and then held his nerve to claim a high-quality second-set tie-break. It was a seventh tour-level victory in a row for Sinner, who last week in Montpellier claimed his seventh ATP Tour title.

For the 21-year-old to extend his winning streak to eight matches, he will have to beat Daniil Medvedev for the first time in Sunday’s championship match in the Netherlands. The sixth-seeded Medvedev, who leads Sinner 4-0 in the pair’s ATP Head2Head series, earlier eased past Grigor Dimitrov 6-1, 6-2 to reach his 28th tour-level final.

“He is very solid, he serves well,” said Sinner, when asked about the challenge of taking on Medvedev. “To break him is very tough, and I need to serve very carefully and very bravely. I will have a chat with my team, and hopefully I can improve on the past meetings.”

Griekspoor had beaten eighth seed Alexander Zverev en route to his maiden ATP 500 semi-final in Rotterdam, a run that had home fans wondering if the 25-year wait for a Dutch champion might be about to end.

Although the 26-year-old was unable to find a way past Sinner on Saturday, he is nonetheless up 21 spots to No. 40 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings as a result of his exploits in his homeland.