Alex De Minaur and Ugo Humbert are the two finalists at the European Open. The two emerging talents beat Dimitrov and Evans respectively in their semifinals and will battle for the tournament victory in Antwerp tomorrow.
Young wolf beats experienced hand in three set (part 1)
During the first semifinal of the day, young Frenchman Ugo Humbert faced Dan Evans, an experienced Briton. Humbert was also a semi-finalist in Antwerp last year and again showed that the track in the Lotto Arena suited him well.
Evans nevertheless started the game best. The Brit went through the service of his opponent once more and thus took the first set 6-4. In an exciting second set had to bring a tiebreaker decision. Humbert saved no less than 4 match balls and pulled the sheet towards view.
The Frenchman smelled blood and immediately went through Evans’ serve in the deciding set. That turned out to be enough to also bring in the third set. Humbert is so in his second ATP final. Earlier this year he already took the title in Auckland, New Zealand.
set
Ugo Humbert (32) Young wolf beats experienced hand in three set (part 2)
A young emerging talent against an experienced stylist, that was also the image in the other semi-finals. With the young De Minaur and former top ten player Dimitrov, the (empty) Lotto Arena could already prepare for a match with high spectacle value.
Those expectations were immediately met. After four breaks in the first set, a tiebreak had to decide and De Minaur was the strongest. In the second set, the roles were reversed. Another tiebreaker had to decide, but now Dimitrov triumphed.
The third set seemed to go right again, until Dimitrov started to falter on his serve. De Minaur also lost his service, but a new service loss from Dimitrov heralded the decision: 6-4 for the Australian. The Minaur is so in his first final of 2020, he already won three titles last year.
Alex De Minaur (25, 8)set
Grigor Dimitrov (20, 4) Some images from De Minaur-Dimitrov:
Some images from Humbert-Evans:
