Popyrin reached his second final at ATP tournaments in his career after an exhausting match that lasted three hours and 18 minutes. The tournament record was not broken (in 2011, Slovenian Kavčič and Argentine Berlocq played for three hours and 41 minutes), but this season in Umag, no match lasted that long. However, the Australian could have secured his spot in the final more quickly. In the first set, he lost his break advantage twice, and in the second set, he constantly missed opportunities. He had eight break points, four of which were set points at 5:4. However, when he won the game on his opponent’s serve in the 12th game, Arnaldi could no longer keep up. Popyrin broke for a 3:1 lead and, in the third set, lost only five points on his own serve. Statistics show that the Australian had as many as 19 break points and converted four of them.
"This was probably the hardest match I’ve ever played. I was tired after the first set, but I tried to stay mentally strong. But I will be ready for the final, I have almost 24 hours to recover. I’ll probably skip breakfast and get a good sleep," said Popyrin.
The Australian will try to win his second title at tournaments of this level on Sunday, after being the winner in Singapore in 2021. This is also the best result for an Australian tennis player in Umag, as apart from Popyrin, only Simon Youl played in Stella Maris in 33 years, who was eliminated at the start in 1994. This year, Christopher O'Connell also played, but he did not go past the opening round.
His opponent on Sunday will be Stan Wawrinka, who passed Italian Lorenzo Sonego without losing a single service game. He faced only one break point when serving for the first set, and somewhat similarly when serving for the match, as Sonego had a promising 0-30. However, that was the end of it...
This will be Wawrinka's 31st major final, but his first since Antwerp in 2019. He has won 16 titles, including three singles Grand Slam titles.
"I played my best match of the week, at a high level. I'm happy to be in the final after so many years," said Wawrinka, who made it to the final after midnight. "Since I came back to tennis after surgery, I’ve been striving for this. It’s already important that I won the doubles last week in Gstaad, that gave me extra energy," said the Swiss, who was once the world No. 3, but now comes to Umag (where he won his first ATP title in 2006) ranked 72nd.
Nino Serdarušić and Slovenian Blaž Rola are the winners of the doubles competition! Although they had never played together before this week and arranged their partnership for this tournament at the last minute, they claimed the title in a dramatic match in which their opponents had three match points. After eliminating the second seeds in the semifinals, they defeated the top seeds, Italians Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori, 4:6, 7:6 (2), 15:13, and both secured their first ATP doubles titles. It was an incredibly tense match in which the Croatian-Slovenian pair used their third match point after saving three match points.
"It was crazy. The whole story is crazy. I came to play qualifiers, but I didn’t make it into the draw, and then Nino asked me if I wanted to play doubles. Director Tomislav Poljak gave us a wildcard maybe an hour before the draw, I think it was worth it," said Rola. Nino added: "I really hope we will play doubles on most tournaments along with our singles careers. Here we beat four top pairs who play together week in, week out."
Bolelli and Vavassori started better, leading 6:4, 3:1 at one point. However, the Croatian-Slovenian pair responded, later convincingly winning the tie-break, and then came a thriller in the third set. Serdarušić and Rola led 8:4, but the Italians had three match points (9:8, 11:10, and 12:11), before Nino and Blaž claimed the title.
This is the first time in the 33-year history of the Umag tournament that a Croatian player has won a doubles title, after six losses in finals. A total of eight Croatian players have played in Umag finals, and Nino became the first to win as the ninth.
Bolelli was the defending champion in Umag, having won the title last year with his compatriot Fabio Fognini. That final also brought a lot of excitement, as they saved eight match points (two at 5:6 in the second set, and a 0-6 deficit in the second set tie-break). He was also the winner in Umag in 2011. Rola, on the other hand, is the first Slovenian to ever win a doubles title at ATP tournaments.
"This was probably the hardest match I’ve ever played. I was tired after the first set, but I tried to stay mentally strong. But I will be ready for the final, I have almost 24 hours to recover. I’ll probably skip breakfast and get a good sleep," said Popyrin.
The Australian will try to win his second title at tournaments of this level on Sunday, after being the winner in Singapore in 2021. This is also the best result for an Australian tennis player in Umag, as apart from Popyrin, only Simon Youl played in Stella Maris in 33 years, who was eliminated at the start in 1994. This year, Christopher O'Connell also played, but he did not go past the opening round.
His opponent on Sunday will be Stan Wawrinka, who passed Italian Lorenzo Sonego without losing a single service game. He faced only one break point when serving for the first set, and somewhat similarly when serving for the match, as Sonego had a promising 0-30. However, that was the end of it...
This will be Wawrinka's 31st major final, but his first since Antwerp in 2019. He has won 16 titles, including three singles Grand Slam titles.
"I played my best match of the week, at a high level. I'm happy to be in the final after so many years," said Wawrinka, who made it to the final after midnight. "Since I came back to tennis after surgery, I’ve been striving for this. It’s already important that I won the doubles last week in Gstaad, that gave me extra energy," said the Swiss, who was once the world No. 3, but now comes to Umag (where he won his first ATP title in 2006) ranked 72nd.
Nino Serdarušić and Slovenian Blaž Rola are the winners of the doubles competition! Although they had never played together before this week and arranged their partnership for this tournament at the last minute, they claimed the title in a dramatic match in which their opponents had three match points. After eliminating the second seeds in the semifinals, they defeated the top seeds, Italians Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori, 4:6, 7:6 (2), 15:13, and both secured their first ATP doubles titles. It was an incredibly tense match in which the Croatian-Slovenian pair used their third match point after saving three match points.
"It was crazy. The whole story is crazy. I came to play qualifiers, but I didn’t make it into the draw, and then Nino asked me if I wanted to play doubles. Director Tomislav Poljak gave us a wildcard maybe an hour before the draw, I think it was worth it," said Rola. Nino added: "I really hope we will play doubles on most tournaments along with our singles careers. Here we beat four top pairs who play together week in, week out."
Bolelli and Vavassori started better, leading 6:4, 3:1 at one point. However, the Croatian-Slovenian pair responded, later convincingly winning the tie-break, and then came a thriller in the third set. Serdarušić and Rola led 8:4, but the Italians had three match points (9:8, 11:10, and 12:11), before Nino and Blaž claimed the title.
This is the first time in the 33-year history of the Umag tournament that a Croatian player has won a doubles title, after six losses in finals. A total of eight Croatian players have played in Umag finals, and Nino became the first to win as the ninth.
Bolelli was the defending champion in Umag, having won the title last year with his compatriot Fabio Fognini. That final also brought a lot of excitement, as they saved eight match points (two at 5:6 in the second set, and a 0-6 deficit in the second set tie-break). He was also the winner in Umag in 2011. Rola, on the other hand, is the first Slovenian to ever win a doubles title at ATP tournaments.
