Basilashvili saves match points, edges Zverev In Hamburg semifinal

Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili just never gave up at the Hamburg European Open on Saturday, fighting off two match points and a 5-2 deficit in the third set tiebreak to edge Alexander Zverev in a semifinal thriller, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (5), and keep his title defense alive at the ATP 500-level event.

Zverev had beaten Basilashvili in straight sets in both previous meetings, in the qualies of Marseille in 2015 and at the Masters 1000 in Shanghai in 2018 - and after dropping the first set on Saturday it looked like the German would make it 3-0, taking the second set and going up 5-3 in the third.

He even had two match points with Basilashvili serving at 3-5 - but the Georgian hit winners on both of those points, first a forehand winner and then a forehand volley winner, and after holding for 4-5 he broke Zverev to get to 5-all. Zverev built a 5-2 lead in the ensuing third set tie-break but Basilashvili caught fire one last time, reeling off five points in a row to claim a three-hour, seven-minute victory.

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“In the tie-break I was really concentrated on the ball and just how to play tennis, how to just play the game,” Basilashvili told ATPTour.com after the match. “But inside I think Sascha was also very tight and emotional, and me also, because it is just one or two points that decide the match.”

Basilashvili also talked about battling his own emotions as the match wore on.

“I don’t think I was calm. I was really emotional inside. Maybe I didn’t show that much,” he said.

“I was serving really, really bad in the third set, so that got me very emotional, and I got very tight also in the third set. But in general, how I managed to come back from 2-5 in the tie-break was something that I give credit to myself for. It doesn’t happen with my tennis that often, so I’m really happy.”

Hamburg has been a very happy hunting ground for Basilashvili - he won the first ATP title of his career at the event a year ago, and now he has the second Top 5 win of his career against the No. 5-ranked Zverev, his first coming against a No. 4-ranked Juan Martin del Potro at Beijing last fall.

By returning to the final, the No. 16-ranked Basilashvili is also guaranteed to stay in the Top 20.

Standing between the Georgian and his second straight title in Hamburg will be Andrey Rublev, who followed up his quarterfinal win over World No. 4 Dominic Thiem with a 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 semifinal win over former Top 10 player Pablo Carreno Busta. Carreno Busta led 6-4, 4-2 with a point for 6-4, 5-2 before Rublev reeled off 11 of the next 13 games to move through to the biggest final of his career.

Basilashvili beat Rublev in the pair’s only previous meeting, 6-3, 6-4, though it was on a completely different surface - hard - in the second round of the ATP 250-level event in Doha earlier this year.

No man has won back-to-back titles in Hamburg since Roger Federer in 2004 and 2005.