Verdasco, Granollers To Clash In All-Spanish Final

© Valeriano Di Domenico/Fresh Focus Marcel Granollers roars in delight at reaching his third ATP World Tour final.

Fourth seed Fernando Verdasco will face eighth seed Marcel Granollers in an all-Spanish final at the Crédit Agricole Suisse Open Gstaad after edging the in-form Nicolas Almagro 6-7(2), 7-6(2), 6-3 on Saturday.

In the first of the semi-finals, Granollers had battled past Russian Mikhail Youzhny 6-3, 3-6, 6-2. The last all-Spanish final at the ATP World Tour 250 clay-court tournament in Gstaad came in 1997 (Mantilla d. Viloca).

In a rematch of last week’s Hamburg semi-finals, Verdasco avenged his defeat to Almagro by firing 13 aces and breaking serve three times. He saved four of the five break points he faced as he claimed the hard-fought victory in two hours and 10 minutes.

"We had very few chances to break each other in the first two sets because I think we were both playing well on serve," reflected Verdasco. "In the first set tie-break he played better, in the second set tie-break I played better. I started the third set with more confidence and he started missing more; that helped me to take the advantage. It was a very difficult match, very mental, and I just tried to play point-by-point."

One week after finishing runner-up in Hamburg (l. to Simon), Almagro was bidding to reach his sixth ATP World Tour clay-court final of the season. The Murcia native dropped to a 41-15 mark on the season (32-9 on clay).

The 27-year-old Verdasco advanced to his third ATP World Tour final of the season; he finished runner-up at San Jose (l. to Raonic) and Estoril (l. to del Potro). The left-hander is bidding to win his first title since lifting his fifth trophy at Barcelona (d. Soderling) in April 2010.

Looking ahead to the final, Verdasco said, "I want to do well, but I will not change my game because of him. Here with the altitude, the matches are always very close. If you serve well, it’s all about the returns and getting the ball back in. It’s going to be a very difficult match, he’s playing very good."

Earlier in the day, Granollers converted six of 15 break point opportunities as he overcame the loss of the second set to reel off the final six games of the match and record his first win in three meetings with Youzhny. The Russian had prevailed in their two previous clashes in Rotterdam and Dusseldorf this year.

“I started the match very well,” recalled Granollers. “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.”

The 25-year-old Granollers is through to his third ATP World Tour final. He won his first title three years ago on clay in Houston (d. Blake), and was runner-up to David Ferrer on the indoor hard-courts in Valencia last November. 

Buy Tickets