ATP Gstaad – Sunday Final Preview

Fernando Verdasco vs. Marcel Granollers

World No. 20 Fernando Verdasco of Spain came back strongly after losing the first set in a tie-breaker to rally past his compatriot and defending champion Nicolas Almagro with a 6-7 7-6 6-3 scoreline. Verdasco will take on another Spaniard Marcel Granollers in the final on Sunday. Fernando Verdasco of Spain reached his third ATP World Tour final of the season on Saturday by rallying past his compatriot and defending champion Nicolas Almagro with a 6-7 7-6 6-3 scoreline in the semi-final of the 2011 Allianz Suisse Open Gstaad, an ATP World Tour 250 Event, being played here in Gstaad, Switzerland.

After 2 hours and 10 minutes of play, Fernando Verdasco won the match. It was a tremendous comeback from Verdasco after he lost the first set. Verdasco fired 13 aces, earned 62% points on his first serve and converted 3 out of 6 break points. Almagro played well till the second-set tie-break but lost his concentration after that and could not recover from that.

In the final, Verdasco will lock horns with World No. 45 Marcel Granollers, who earned a hard-fought victory over the Russian Mikhail Youzhny in another semi-final with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 on Saturday. With this victory Granollers reached his third ATP World Tour final.

After the match Granollers said, “I started the match very well. But I lost my serve in the first game of the second set and then the match changed a little bit because Youzhny started to play better and better. In the final set I was 2-0 down, but I broke him and then the match changed again and I finished it very well.”