After five days of exhilarating tennis actions on the courts of the Khalifa International Tennis & Squash Complex in Doha, the finalists have emerged at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open 2020 with second-seed Andrey Rublev of Russia meeting 20-year-old tournament debutant Corentin Moutet, who staged a surprising semi-final 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 upset of top-seed Stan Wawrinka, in Saturday's final.
With rain washing out three of the scheduled quarter-final matches on Thursday, tennis fans were treated to a double dose of actions on Friday with both the remaining last-eight matches and the subsequent semis staged on the same day.
Hours after defeating Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert 6-4, 6-3 in the quarters, Rublev was back on the court against to face Serbia's Miomir Kecmanovi, the only semi-finalist to qualify on Thursday. The extra "hours" of rest for the 20-year-old Serbian, however, counted for nothing as the Russian got a straight set 6-3, 6-1 victory in just 53 minutes to secure his place in the final.
For 81-ranked Moutet, who had to go through the qualifying rounds, beating 2008 finalist Wawrinka was an unbelievable dream come true.
"This is one of the best nights of my career and I'm absolutely delighted to have pulled this through. To win against a player like Wawrinka is something great and I'm happy to reach the final. I'll be up against another strong player (Rublev) tomorrow and I hope it ends in my favour," said Moutet who turned pro in 2016 and is waiting for his first title.
Meanwhile, Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands and India's Rohan Bopanna clinched the men's doubles final title after staging a come-from-behind win over the unseeded duo of Luke Bambridge and Santiago Gonzalez in Doha on Friday.
Third seeds Koolhof and Bopanna defeated the British-Mexican pair 3-6, 6-2, 10-6 in the summit clash to win the first doubles title of the season and picked up 250 ATP points along with the $76,870 prize money.
The Indo-Dutch combination had earlier reached the final after beating second seeds Henri Kontinen and Franco Skugor 7-5, 6-2.
Source: Qatar News Agency
Image Source: BeinSports
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