Third seed Tomas Berdych will play for his first ATP World Tour title of the season after earning revenge against Canadian Milos Raonic 7-6(5), 7-6(2) on Friday during the semi-finals of the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Lyon.
Berdych had lost to Raonic in straight sets eight days ago at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome, and Raonic led their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 5-2. But the 31-year-old Berdych delivered nine aces to eke out a tight win and reach his first ATP World Tour final since last October, when he beat Richard Gasquet to win the Shenzhen Open.
“Best match here definitely. I'm improving match by match, which is good and that's very important. I'm happy with the way the week is going,” Berdych said.
The World No. 14 last played in a clay-court final in 2015, when he fell to Novak Djokovic at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters. The Czech right-hander will try to secure his 14th title when he meets Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who advanced to his first clay-court final with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 victory against Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili.
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“Good feelings today. I played a tough opponent... He was very solid. I managed to keep it up in the third set while he dropped his level a little bit,” Tsonga said.
The 32-year-old Tsonga hit 14 aces and saved eight of 10 break points in the last-four contest. “It was a big advantage for him... He was serving really good,” Basilashvili said.
Tsonga has played in 25 tour-level finals during his 14-year career but none on clay. He won back-to-back indoor titles in February in Rotterdam and Marseille, but has gotten off to a slow start on the clay.
Tsonga had to withdraw from his second-round match at the Mutua Madrid Open and from the Internazionali BNL d'Italia because of a right shoulder injury.
Berdych leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 8-4, but Tsonga won their last clay-court meeting, 2015 Roland Garros. “I'm expecting again a very good test, a big battle and I'm looking forward to it,” Berdych said. “Let's finish the week strong.”