Fritz reaches first clay-court ATP Tour final in Munich, Struff advances

Is this the week Taylor Fritz breaks his title duck on clay?

The American reached his first tour-level final on the surface on Saturday at the BMW Open in Munich, where he downed Chilean Cristian Garin 6-3, 6-4.

Fritz had lost all six of his previous tour-level semi-finals on the clay prior to his clash against Garin, but ensured history would not repeat itself. The third seed did not face a break point against Garin, thundering the ball off both wings to dictate and advance after 81 minutes.

"It is really cool [to reach the final]," Fritz said. "I have been really close to a clay-court final a couple of times. It would be awesome to get a title on a clay court."

Fritz now leads Garin 2-1 in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series and will battle for his eighth tour-level title when he meets German Jan-Lennard Struff in Sunday’s final.

Fritz is chasing his second trophy of the season this week, having triumphed in Delray Beach. The 26-year-old is up one spot to No. 14 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings. By moving above countryman Ben Shelton, Fritz will once again be the No. 1 American in the PIF ATP Rankings on Monday.

Germany’s Struff earned the biggest win of his season when he downed two-time defending champion Holger Rune 6-2, 6-0 to reach the final in Munich for the second time.

Roared on by a vocal home crowd, Struff blasted Rune off the court with his power to reach his first final of the season. The 33-year-old, who completed his 7-5, 6-4 quarter-final win against Felix Auger-Aliassime earlier on Saturday, won 96 per cent (24/25) of his first-serve points to advance after just 45 minutes.

Struff is seeking his maiden tour-level title this week. He is up four spots to No. 24 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings.