Sinner reaches first grass final in Halle

After notching three consecutive three-set wins to begin his Terra Wortmann Open campaign, Jannik Sinner finished the job in straight sets on Saturday. Still, he was made to work for his 6-4, 7-6(3) semi-final victory against Zhang Zhizhen.

The result saw Sinner through to his first grass final, with his best previous result on the lawns a semi-final showing last year at Wimbledon (l. to Djokovic). He will meet 2022 Halle champion Hubert Hurkacz in Sunday's title match.

"It means a lot. I had four very tough matches to go to the final," Sinner said in his post-match interview. "It was a good match today. Definitely more rallies than yesterday and that's exactly what I needed today. I'm happy and let's see what's coming tomorrow."

Ticking off the milestones ??

World No.1 @janniksin also heads into a 1st grass final 6-4, 7-6(3) over Zhang@ATPHalle | #TerraWortmannOpen pic.twitter.com/0rXohGdRcG

In a match of fine margins that hung on a knife's edge throughout, Sinner claimed his lone break point late in the opening set and saved the only break point against him to erase a set point for Zhang at 5-6 in the second. Sinner ripped a brave forehand winner to fend off that break chance, then made good on a fast start to the tie-break to escape in two sets in the pair's first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting.

"In important moments [I was] trying to serve well," the Italian said. "He returned actually really well in some moments so I had to be very careful. I had to save a set point in the second set. If not I had to go again in three sets. But this is a grass court, anything can happen."

Both Sinner and Zhang won 80 per cent of their first-serve points in a match dominated by the server. Sinner fired eight aces and Zhang hit nine, according to Infosys ATP Stats.

The 22-year-old is bidding to become the eighth man in PIF ATP Rankings history to win the title in his first event as a World No. 1, and the first to do it since Andy Murray at the 2016 Nitto ATP Finals.

Zhang was seeking his second Top 5 win of the week after he beat World No. 5 Daniil Medvedev on Wednesday for the best career win by PIF ATP Ranking. Playing in his second ATP Tour semi-final (Hamburg 2023), the 27-year-old was stopped short in his bid to become the second Chinese player to reach a tour-level final (Wu Yibing, Dallas 2023). Zhang was also attempting to become the first Chinese player to beat a reigning World No. 1.

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