Basilashvili lines up Struff in Munich Open final

Associated PressMay 1, 2021, 6:17 PM EDT

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MUNICH — Nikoloz Basilashvili set up a meeting with Jan-Lennard Struff in the Munich Open final by winning two matches.

Basilashvili was leading 5-4 in his quarterfinal with Norbert Gombos when it was suspended on Friday due to rain. The Georgian served out the first set on Saturday and broke Gombos once in the second for a 6-4, 6-4 win.

He then blew away Casper Ruud 6-1, 6-2 in the semifinals, breaking the Norwegian five times.

Ruud, too, was playing his second match of the day after beating John Millman 6-3, 6-4. Their quarterfinal was suspended on Friday following the first set.

Basilashvili heads into his second tour final of the season after winning the Qatar Open in March. He has a 4-2 career record in finals, with two of those wins on clay.

Struff made his first tour final after ending a seven-match losing run in semifinals by stopping in-form qualifier Ilya Ivashka 6-4, 6-1. Struff recovered from 3-1 down in the first set, winning 11 of the next 13 games.

At 44th in the world, Struff shed his record of being the highest-ranked men’s player yet to have played an ATP singles final.

Ivashka had beaten two-time Munich champion Alexander Zverev in the previous round and went 10-2 on clay last month.

Basilashvili and Struff are tied 2-2 in their tour main-draw meetings. Basilashvili won their most recent meeting in the Sardegna Open quarterfinals last month, also on clay.

At French Open, Francisco Cerundolo is mad at chair umpire over Holger Rune’s double-bounce

Associated PressJun 5, 2023, 8:49 PM EDT

Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports

PARIS – Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina was devastated about losing his French Open fourth-round match to Holger Rune of Denmark in a fifth-set tiebreaker Monday. He also was mad at chair umpire Kader Nouni for missing a double-bounce of the ball on a point that was awarded to Rune early in his 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (10-7) victory.

They were tied at a set apiece and on serve at 2-1 for the No. 6-seeded Rune early in the third at Court Suzanne Lenglen when the point of contention happened. Cerundolo, who was serving at deuce, hit a forehand that skidded low at the baseline and quickly bounced a second time – which normally would have meant that the point was his.

But Rune went ahead and got his racket on the ball, sending it back over the net. At about the same time, No. 23 seed Cerundolo was saying “sorry” to apologize for the odd way his forehand made the ball skim across the clay. Nouni was not immediately aware of the double-bounce, thought the ball was still in play and called Cerundolo for hindrance for talking during a point. That meant Rune got the point, and when he won the next one, too, he had a service break.

“It was unbelievable, because it was a clear double-bounce. I was mad at the umpire because he has to see it,” Cerundolo said. “It’s his fault.”

In tennis, electronic line-calling is used at many tournaments to make line calls, but replays are not used to check things like double-bounces or whether a point should be lost because a player touches the net, which is not allowed.

And while Cerundolo put the onus on the official, he also thought Rune could have ceded the point because of the double-bounce.

“For sure, I wish he would have done that, because it was a big moment,” Cerundolo said.

Rune, who moved into a matchup against No. 4 Casper Ruud in the quarterfinals, said he saw a replay after the following point, and “saw it was a double bounce. But the point already happened, and he called the score. So I felt sorry.”

But, Rune added: “This is tennis. This is sports. Some umpires, they make mistakes. Some for me; some for him. That’s life.”

Gael Monfils withdraws from French Open with wrist injury

Associated PressJun 1, 2023, 11:34 AM EDT

Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports

PARIS — A thrilling five-set victory took a toll on Gael Monfils, whose withdrawal from the French Open handed No. 6 Holger Rune a walkover to the third round.

The 36-year-old Frenchman said he has a strained left wrist and can’t continue.

He battled Sebastian Baez for nearly four hours on Court Philippe Chatrier before beating the Argentine 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, 1-6, 7-5 in a first-round match that ended at 12:18 a.m. local time.

The victory was Monfils’ first at tour level this year, as the veteran was coming back from heel surgery.

“Actually, physically, I’m quite fine. But I had the problem with my wrist that I cannot solve,” he said. “The doctor say was not good to play with that type of injury. Yesterday was actually very risky, and then today definitely say I should stop.”

Monfils reached the semifinals at the French Open in 2008 and made it to the quarterfinals on three other occasions.