Halle: Sinner advances to first grass final, meets Hurkacz next

World No 1 Jannik Sinner, of Italy, advanced to the final of the Halle Open by winning against Chinese Zhizhen Zhang 6-4, 7-6 (3) at the Owl Arena/Gerry-Weber-Stadion on Saturday.

Sinner will play his doubles partner for this week, Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz, the No 5 seed, in Sunday’s final.

Sinner and Hurkacz, who are also good friends off the court, lost in the doubles quarter-finals earlier in the week. The pair have played four times in the past, with both players winning twice each but tomorrow will be their first meeting on grass.

The Italian is through to his fourth ATP final of the season (18th of his career) but this will his first career final on grass. With today’s win, Sinner improves to 37-3 for the year.

Earlier in the tournament, the 22-year-old Italian defeated Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor (6-7 (8), 6-3, 6-2), Hungarian Fabian Marozsan (6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-3) and German Jan-Lennard Struff (6-2, 6-7 (1), 7-6 (3)).

Sinner has now reached an ATP Tour singles final on clay, hard and grass – making him one of only five Italians to have achieved the same on the tour. He also becomes only the fourth male player since 2000 to reach the final in his first tournament as world No 1 (joining Juan Carlos Ferrero, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Murray).

Zhang, ranked No 42 in the world and the first Chinese player to reach an ATP semi-final on grass, won against Austrian Sebastian Ofner (7-6 (8), 6-7 (3), 6-4), Russian Daniil Medvedev, the No 3 seed (6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (5)) and American Christopher Eubanks (6-4, 4-6, 7-5) in the previous rounds of Halle tournament.

Halle ATP 500, other semi-final result (Owl Arena/Gerry-Weber-Stadion, grass, EUR 2,255,655):

• Hubert Hurkacz beat Alexander Zverev (2): 7-6 (2), 6-4

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