Arthur Fils and Hamad Medjedovic will play for the title at the Next Gen ATP Finals in Jeddah. Fils and Medjedovic have shown the most this week. They won all eight matches and set up a fun final. The top seed beat Luca Van Assche in an all-French semi-final match that took one hour and 37 minutes and went 2-4, 4-1, 4-3, 4-3.
Before Fils raised his game, Van Assche won the first set. Fils then dominated the second set and won the most important points in the third and fourth to come out on top and stay on track for the title. Arthur hit nine aces and was very good after the first serve.
He played better after the second serve than the other player, and they both made one of three break points. The player who was ranked higher hit 26 service winners, had 24 direct points, and made 22 unforced mistakes. He kept the points on his racquet.
In the first four games, both players served well, and after 12 minutes, the score was tied at 2-2.
In Jeddah, Arthur Fils and Hamad Medjedovic will try to win the Next Gen ATP Finals title
In the fifth game, Van Assche took charge from the baseline. He led a long battle and got a break after Fils made a forehand mistake.
At 3-2, Luca served for the first game and made Arthur make a mistake, which ended the set in 20 minutes. The top seed got a break at 2-1 in the second set, took the lead, and hit an ace in the next game to hold at 15 and 4-1.
In the third set, Van Assche served well and got two set points on the return when the score was 3-2. Fils told them they couldn’t have it and made a key hold that broke the game. With a boost, Arthur got three mini-breaks and went ahead 5-0.
He won the tiebreaker 7-1 after Luca’s loose backhand, giving him a two-sets-to-one lead after an hour and a half. In the first five games of the fourth set, the returners had nothing to work with. Van Assche was serving to stay in the match at 2-3.
In the last point, Luca won with a backhand, saving a set point and setting up a tie break. Fils had two set points at 6-4, but he missed a simple forehand on the second one, which put Van Assche ahead 6-6. Arthur won the fourth match point at 7-6 after Luca’s backhand went wide. He was happy to be in the title match.
Dominic Stricker quit because of a back injury while losing 4-3, 2-1 in Saturday’s final, so Hamad Medjedovic will play Fils. In the first set, Hamad and Dominic were tied at 2-2. Dominic won the first serve and set up a tie break.
After serving for ten points in a row, Hamad got a mini-break at 5-5 and won the next point with a backhand crosscourt winner, ending the set in 22 minutes. The Swiss player retired in the third game of the second set after the Serb won two return games and lost serve. This put Medjedovic in the title match.
