The final of the 2023 Gonet Geneva Open (Saturday, 15:00 CET) has all the makings of a classic. On one side of the net Grigor Dimitrov (ATP 33), the man with the impossible return of serve, and on the other, Nicolas Jarry (ATP 54), who accounted for two-time defending champion Casper Ruud in the quarters and Olympic champion Alexander Zverev in the semis, exacting a handsome measure of revenge for the his defeat to the German in the 2019 final, when he passed up two match points.
Jarry is enjoying perhaps the finest week of his career. At the age of 27, he is finally back to his best having had to start from scratch following an 11-month suspension handed down for taking a banned substance in a food supplement mistakenly prescribed to him by his doctor. “There were a lot of tears and sleepless nights,” said the Chilean. Thankfully, for him the tears have dried and his sleep now unbroken. A deserving winner against Ruud on Thursday, Jarry proved so once more against Zverev. With both serve and forehand working to near perfection, he refused to allow the German to settle and ran out a comfortable 7-6 (3) 6-3 winner. With his all-court game and renowned mental toughness, Dimitrov will prove a formidable opponent in the final. In a repeat of his quarter-final win against Australia’s Christopher O’Connell, the Bulgarian found himself a set and a break down to Taylor Fritz before serving up another unlikely comeback, prevailing 3-6 7-5 7-6(2) in unquestionably one of the finest matches in the tournament’s history. The penultimate point of the match is worth watching alone. It left Dimitrov holding four match points and brought the entire stadium to its feet.