PETE ZIEBRON in PHOENIX
Greeted by a Canadian Goose on Semifinal Day at the Arizona Tennis Classic. Pete Ziebron Images
Saturday afternoon at the Phoenix Country Club, a near capacity crowd enjoyed sunny 80F temperatures at the first Arizona Tennis Classic, an impressive new edition to the ATP Challenger schedule. The sun and warmth was a far cry from the unseasonable cold just 72 hours earlier.
Mikhail Kukushkin advances to the Final. Pete Ziebron Images
Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan raced to a 6-1 opening set win over Italian Salvatore Caruso, who upset #1 seed David Goffin on Friday afternoon. The world #43 Kukushkin broke the Italian in his first service game and two more times in the opening set. In the next set, Kukushkin also did not face a break point against and finally did break Caruso as he served for a 6-5 lead in the second set. Following the break, Kukushkin closed out the match on his serve for a 6-1 7-5 victory.
Next up, Matteo Berrettini of Italy took on Argentine Guido Andreozzi. The opening set was high quality tennis as there were no breaks of serve, although Berrettini failed to break on all six of his chances. In the eleventh game of the first set, there were nine deuces, Berrettini did not convert breaks on four occasions and finally Andreozzi won the game on his fifth game point. In total, 23 points were played in the eleventh game. Although the next game also went to deuce, Berrettini hit his fifth ace of the set to take it to a tiebreaker. The players split the first four points before the Italian took the next four to claim a 6-2 lead. Two points later, the world #57 Berrettini won the opening set 7-6(3).
Matteo Berrettini cruises to victory in the second set. Pete Ziebron Images
Although Andreozzi won 47 points in the first set, he could only manage to win just nine in the second set as Berrettini coasted to a 6-1 second set win to advance to the final.
Ironically, Matteo Berrettini and Mikhail Kukushkin also met in an ATP Challenger Final last year on this same week, at the now defunct Irving Challenger. Kukushkin won that match 6-2 3-6 6-1 and is the higher ranked player heading into today's Final.
The Canadian Geese arriving at the Arizona Tennis Classic. Pete Ziebron Images
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