Atp Final Debutantes Basic and Copil Battle for Sofia Title
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DIEMA XTRA SOFIA OPEN: DAY 7 MEDIA NOTES Sunday, 11 February 2018 Arena Armeec Sofia - Sofia, Bulgaria | 5-11 February 2018 Draw: S-28, D-16 | Prize Money: € 501,345 | Surface: Indoor Hard ATP World Tour Info Tournament Info ATP PR & Marketing ATPWorldTour.com Sofiaopen.bg/en Martin Dagahs: [email protected] Twitter: @ATPWorldTour @sofiaopentennis Press Room: [email protected] Facebook: @ATPWorldTour facebook.com/sofiaopentennis/ TV & Radio: TennisTV.com ATP FINAL DEBUTANTES BASIC AND COPIL BATTLE FOR SOFIA TITLE • It will be a battle between first-time ATP World Tour finalists at the Diema Xtra Sofia Open on Sunday, as Romania’s Marius Copil takes on Bosnian qualifier Mirza Basic for the chance to lift their first singles trophy. • Basic has had exceptional success at the ATP World Tour 250 level since the end of last year. The player from Bosnia and Herzegovina has made the quarter-finals or better in his last three ATP World Tour 250 events, reaching the semi-finals in Moscow last year, the quarter-finals at Doha in January, and now the Sofia final – each time as a qualifier. Basic took out No. 4 seed Philipp Kohlschreiber in the second round, and then defeated top seed and World No. 15 Stan Wawrinka in the semi-finals. Basic’s win over the three-time Grand Slam champion was his first win over a Top 20 opponent in his career. • Copil has cruised to his first ATP World Tour final appearance, not having dropped a set in his four matches. The Romanian beat two seeds en route, No. 5 seed Robin Haase in the first round, and 3rd-seeded Gilles Muller in the quarter-finals, before another straight-set win over qualifier Jozef Kovalik in the semi-finals. The win over Muller was Copil’s first ever win in a semi-final, after losing in his first five attempts. • In the doubles tournament, two relatively novice pairings are into the final, as No. 2 seeds Nikola Mektic of Croatia and Alexander Peya from Austria square off against 4th-seeded Dutchmen Robin Haase and Matwe Middelkoop. Haase and Middelkoop have already tasted success together, winning the title at Pune in the opening week of this season, in only their second tournament together (not including two previous Davis Cup matches). That same week, Mektic and Peya played together for the first time, in Doha. In their fourth event as a tandem, they have reached their first final. FEDEX ATP HEAD2HEADS: SUNDAY CHAMPIONSHIP MATCHES CENTER COURT [Q] Mirza Basic (BIH) vs Marius Copil (ROU) First Tour-Level Meeting Other Meetings 15 Izmir CH (Turkey) Hard SF Marius Copil 6-3 6-4 16 Australian Open Q (Australia) Hard Q-2R Mirza Basic 6-3 7-6(1) 16 Wroclaw CH (Poland) Hard R32 Mirza Basic 6-4 7-6(5) Basic Summary: 2018 Highlights: F (1): Sofia; QF (1): Doha (l. Pella) YTD W-L: 6-1 YTD Titles: 0 / Career Titles: 0 Date of Birth: 12 July 1991 (26) ATP Ranking: 129 Sofia W-L (Best Result): 5-1 (2018 Final) For the latest stats, facts and figures about the ATP World Tour, follow @ATPMediaInfo on Twitter. Diema Xtra Sofia Open Day 7 – Sunday, 11 February 2018 Page 2 of 2 www.ATPWorldTour.com • Tournament Note: Following 2R win over No. 4 seed Kohlschreiber, has made QF or better in last three ATP World Tour 250 events (SF Moscow 2017, QF Doha 2018, F+ Sofia 2018), each time as a qualifier; claimed first Top 20 win of career over World No. 15 Wawrinka in SF to make first ATP World Tour final. • Lost in 1R of Australian Open qualifying to A. Gonzalez. • Reached 2nd ATP World Tour QF at Doha as Q (def. F. Lopez, l. to Pella). • Last year, advanced to 1st ATP World Tour QF and SF at Moscow as Q (l. to eventual champion Dzumhur). • Also in 2017, captured 2nd ATP Challenger Tour title at Guadalajara, MEX (d. Shapovalov). Copil Summary: 2018 Highlights: F (1): Sofia YTD W-L: 6-2 YTD Titles: 0 / Career Titles: 0 Date of Birth: 17 October 1990 (27) ATP Ranking: 93 Sofia W-L (Best Result): 5-1 (2018 Final) • Tournament Note: Beat 5th seed Haase and Kavcic to reach 1st ATP World Tour QF since Metz in September 2017; claimed straight-set win over No. 3 seed Muller to advance to first career SF (0-5 in QF matches previously); eliminated [Q] Kovalik in SF to make maiden ATP World Tour final. • Went 2-0 in Davis Cup matches last week vs. Luxembourg. • Suffered 1R losses at Pune (l. to Djere) and Australian Open (l. to Simon). • Last year, advanced to Challenger Tour finals at Kaohsiung, TPE (l. to Donskoy) and Bratislava, SVK (l. to Lacko). • Broke into Top 100 of ATP Rankings on 15 May 2017 and reached career-high No. 74 on 16 October 2017. DOUBLES CHAMPIONSHIP [4] Robin Haase (NED) / Matwe Middelkoop (NED) vs First Meeting [2] Nikola Mektic (CRO) / Alexander Peya (AUT) • Haase and Middelkoop have an 8-4 win/loss record as a team. • Won their first ATP Tour doubles title as a team in the first week of this year at Pune (def. Herbert/Simon). • Also reached QF of the US Open last year, the first Grand Slam event they played together (l. F. Lopez/M. Lopez). • 1-1 record as a Davis Cup doubles team for the Netherlands. • Haase has won 3 ATP World Tour doubles titles in his career. Middelkoop has won 5 doubles championships. • Mektic and Peya teamed up at the start of 2018, and have gone 4-3 on the year. This is their 1st final as a team. • Moved into final with SF win over No. 3 seeds Monroe/Smith in a 10-3 match tiebreak. • Lost in 2R of Australian Open to eventual finalists Cabal/Farah. • Mektic won his first 2 ATP World Tour doubles titles last year, at Budapest and Memphis (both with B. Baker). • Peya is a former World No. 3 in doubles, and has won 15 ATP World Tour doubles titles in his career, incl. the ATP Masters 1000 Canada in 2013 and 2014 (both w/Soares). He also reached the US Open final in 2013 (w/Soares). For the latest stats, facts and figures about the ATP World Tour, follow @ATPMediaInfo on Twitter. DIEMA XTRA SOFIA OPEN: DAY 6 MEDIA NOTES Saturday, 10 February 2018 Arena Armeec Sofia - Sofia, Bulgaria | 5-11 February 2018 Draw: S-28, D-16 | Prize Money: € 501,345 | Surface: Indoor Hard ATP World Tour Info Tournament Info ATP PR & Marketing ATPWorldTour.com Sofiaopen.bg/en Martin Dagahs: [email protected] Twitter: @ATPWorldTour @sofiaopentennis Press Room: [email protected] Facebook: @ATPWorldTour facebook.com/sofiaopentennis/ TV & Radio: TennisTV.com WAWRINKA, POTENTIAL FINAL DEBUTANTES INTO SOFIA SEMI-FINALS • No. 1 seed and three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland goes for his 17th career ATP World Tour singles title while three other athletes vie for their first career ATP World Tour final appearances in the semi-finals of the Diema Xtra Sofia Open on Saturday. Additionally, two qualifiers have advanced to the semi-finals, the first instances in the tournament’s three-year history where any qualifier has made it that far. This is the first ATP World Tour semi-final of the season for all four remaining players. • Coming off his ninth win in nine tries over No. 6 seed Viktor Troicki, World No. 15 Wawrinka will take on qualifier Mirza Basic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the final four. Wawrinka is looking to reach his first final since having a 10-match winning streak snapped by Rafael Nadal in the Roland Garros final last year – the only Grand Slam final Wawrinka has ever lost. Meanwhile, despite his qualifier status, Basic has consistently found himself in the later rounds of ATP World Tour 250 tournaments since the end of last year. Basic has made the quarter-finals or better in his last three ATP World Tour 250 events, reaching the semi-finals in Moscow last year, the quarter-finals at Doha in January, and now the Sofia semi-finals – each time as a qualifier. A win for Basic would be his first victory over an opponent ranked in the Top 20, as well as entry into his first final. • Even if Wawrinka bests Basic, a first career ATP World Tour final appearance is guaranteed to occur, as the opening match on Saturday between Romania’s Marius Copil and qualifier Jozef Kovalik of Slovakia features two players who are both contesting their first career semi-finals. Copil won an ATP World Tour quarter-final match for the first time in six attempts on Friday, taking out No. 3 seed Gilles Muller, and the Romanian has not dropped a set in the tournament yet. Kovalik beat former Top 10 player Marcos Baghdatis to reach his maiden semi-final, after two prior unsuccessful quarter-final matches. Kovalik therefore joins Basic as the only two qualifiers to have advanced to the semi-finals in Sofia’s history. The Slovak also saved a match point in the second round against his countryman Lukas Lacko. FEDEX ATP HEAD2HEADS: SATURDAY SEMI-FINAL SINGLES MATCHES CENTER COURT Marius Copil (ROU) vs [Q] Jozef Kovalik (SVK) First Tour-Level Meeting Other Meeting 17 Sophia Antipolis CH (France) Clay R32 Jozef Kovalik 4-6 6-2 6-2 Copil Summary: 2018 Highlights: SF (1): Sofia YTD W-L: 5-2 YTD Titles: 0 / Career Titles: 0 Date of Birth: 17 October 1990 (27) ATP Ranking: 93 Sofia W-L (Best Result): 4-1 (2018 Semi-finals) For the latest stats, facts and figures about the ATP World Tour, follow @ATPMediaInfo on Twitter.