Moutet downs Michelsen to reach first ATP final in over five years
June 27 (Reuters) - Corentin Moutet booked his place in the Mallorca Open final with a 6-4 7-6(3) win over third seed Alex Michelsen on Friday, reaching his first ATP showpiece match in over five years.
The Frenchman will face Tallon Griekspoor in Saturday's showdown after the Dutchman secured a 6-4 6-4 win over Canadian second seed Felix Auger-Aliassime.
The unseeded Moutet, whose only previous appearance in an ATP final was in Doha in 2020, broke twice in the opening set and remained solid on serve to take it 6-4.
Moutet's court craft kept his American opponent off balance throughout, with his lefty angles and slice disrupting Michelsen's rhythm.
The second set was a tighter affair, with both players trading early breaks. Michelsen created five break points at 4-3 but 26-year-old Moutet saved them all in a gutsy hold.
The American edged ahead 6-5, but Moutet responded with a composed service game to force a tiebreak.
Moutet went ahead 4-3 in the breaker and never looked back, sealing the match on his first opportunity and will now be biding to win his maiden ATP title.
Fourth seed Griekspoor secured a break in each set and held firm on serve to reach the final.
Auger-Aliassime made a few errors but mostly struggled to challenge Griekspoor's serve, falling short in key moments.
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And every point you lose, you f------ take it.' The irony was that he had never acted this way in team sport before, even when flying the flag for Switzerland at the Davis Cup. It illustrated the hollowness of the enterprise, with Federer trying to make a spectacle that essentially meant nothing look as if it meant everything. It is the fundamental problem with the Laver Cup, as it rolls on to San Francisco in September: that for its pretensions to be sport of substance, it serves little purpose beyond burnishing Federer's cult of personality. The pity is that he still resists any shift into television commentary, where he could offer a degree of technical expertise unparalleled in the booth. He has admitted that he did consider it, only shelving the plan when he realised how critical he would have to be of the players. 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