Fourth seed Canadian Denis Shapovalov will go after his second career ATP Tour title in Seoul on Sunday, with the fellow left-hander, Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan, standing in the way.
Shapovalov defeated Jenson Brooksby of the United States 7-5, 6-4, in the semifinals of the Eugene Korea Open at Olympic Park Tennis Center in Seoul on Saturday.
Hours later, Nishioka got past Aleksandar Kovacevic of the United States 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, to set up the final date with Shapovalov.
The Korea Open is the first ATP Tour event in South Korea since 1996. It will conclude with the finals in both the doubles and singles on Sunday.
With rain in forecast in Seoul late Sunday afternoon, the tournament organizers moved up the starting time for the doubles final from 1 p.m. to 12:30 p.m. It will pit the top seed duo, Raven Klaasen of South Africa and Nathaniel Lammons of the United States, against the second seed, Nicolas Barrientos of Colombia and Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela of Mexico.
The singles final will begin at 1:30 p.m. or later, depending the length of the doubles final, instead of the original starting time of 3:30 p.m. This will be Shapovalov’s first final of 2022, and Nishioka’s second.
Shapovalov, ranked 24th, is the highest-seed remaining in the tournament. The top seed from Norway, Casper Ruud, was stunned by Nishioka in the quarterfinals on Friday, while the next two seeded players, Cameron Norrie of Britain and Taylor Fritz of the United States, both withdrew with unspecified illnesses.
Shapovalov, the 2021 Wimbledon semifinalist, earned his first ATP title at the 2019 Stockholm Open.
Nishioka, 27, also has one career title so far, from the 2018 Shenzhen Open. He’s currently the top-ranked Japanese at No. 56.
Nishioka defeated Shapovalov in the round of 16 at the 2018 Shenzhen Open in three sets, their only previous meeting to date.
Before finding out whom he’d face in the final, Shapovalov recalled his earlier struggles against Nishioka.
“He’s a very tough opponent. He gets a lot of balls back,” the Canadian said. “I am just happy to be in the final and happy to have an opportunity to play for the title.”
Nishioka said though both he and Shapovalov are left-handed, their playing styles are “very different.”
“He’s very, very aggressive. We are almost the opposite,” the Japanese player said. “I have to be careful and I have to be ready. I will try to show my best tennis.”
Source: Yonhap News Agency