Nicolas Jarry won at the end of the night this Friday. For the first time in his career, he reached the final of a Masters 1000. The 28-year-old Chilean took all the risks to get rid of Tommy Paul (6-3, 6-7 [3]6-4) in Rome, after 2 hours 44 minutes of play.
A profitable strategy to shake up the American (16th in the world) who was put in difficulty by his long game, even if he committed more direct errors than his opponent in the evening. In the first act, his forehand pushed Tommy Paul away from his line until he broke on his serve (5-3). The only break of the set, which benefited Stefanos Tsitsipas’s scorer in the quarter-finals, serene on his serve to ensure the victory of the first set with two aces.
A novice at this level of the competition, Jarry did not give in to the pressure at the start of the second set by continuing to play without restraint, but this time, he was not as precise, while the American adapted to return his first balls as best as possible. Back to back, they played the second set in the tie-break. Solid defensively, Paul took advantage of his opponent’s excitement in this decisive moment to return to a set everywhere.
One last unbreathable game
With confidence, Tommy Paul took the upper hand, applying himself on returns to offer himself a break point at 2-2. But the Chilean resisted. The 24th in the world has not lost his lucidity despite the apparent fatigue on his face. And he pulled himself together to make the break (4-2) before confirming his throw-in, benefiting from a little luck, like an unacademic volley at the net, which landed in the runs to the surprise of his opponent.
After four missed match points, he saved two break points thanks to his devastating forehand. A game which lasted more than 12 minutes before Jarry gave himself one last chance to dream of a final only to end with a mistake from the American. At 28, he played the best tennis of his career to join the German Alexander Zverev (5th), winner in Rome in 2017, in the final on Sunday, at the Foro Italico, at 5 p.m.
