With rain having forced the cancellation of this evening’s second semi-final, it will now be played tomorrow at 10:30am. Despite this change to the scheduling, only tickets for the Saturday session (final) will be accepted tomorrow. On-site ticketing will open at 9am.
Novak Djokovic has been at his unflappable best at the Gonet Geneva Open this week. After saving ten break points out of 11 against Yannick Hanfmann on Tuesday, the world No. 1 pulled off another escapology act against Tallon Griekspoor (ATP 27), somehow winning the first set from 4-5 and 0-40 down and saving four set points in the process. “I was lucky to come away with that first set,” said the Serb afterwards, who eventually ran out a comfortable 7-5 6-1 winner in one hour 18 minutes. Waiting for him in the semis on Friday is 24-year-old Czech player Tomas Machac (ATP 44), who caused Djokovic plenty of problems in Dubai last year.
Also moving inexorably closer to the final is Casper Ruud, who will meet Flavio Cobolli (ATP 56) in the semi-finals after the Italian saw off Alexander Shevchenko (ATP 61) 6-4 6-4. The Norwegian prevailed in a superb three-setter against Sebastian Baez (ATP 20), though he needed a little luck along the way, with a providential net cord on the penultimate point of the match proving crucial. The Argentinian’s subsequent double fault on match point was almost inevitable after that.
The two went blow for blow before that dramatic finale in a chilly night session, showing that their recent results on clay owed nothing to luck and everything to masterful control of the surface.
Novak Djokovic will always remember his first outing at the Parc des Eaux-Vives, as he secured his 1,100th ATP Tour win on the day of his 37th birthday. Cheered on by a vociferous crowd, the world No. 1 saw off the threat posed by the dangerous Yannick Hanfmann (ATP 85) in straight sets.
His 6-3 6-3 victory was not all plain sailing, however, with the German forcing 11 break points, including one for 4-0 in the second set, but was able to convert only one of them. The Serb’s resilience reflected his desire to go the distance at his maiden Gonet Geneva Open. Before he went off to enjoy his birthday cake, Djokovic reminded everyone just why he is the best by winning outstanding back-to-back points on the Hanfmann serve at 0-15 and 0-30. As those rallies showed, he has every intention of taking up Casper Ruud on his offer of a dream final on Saturday, a match-up that the whole of Geneva is crossing its fingers for. A former two-time champion here, the Norwegian was taken all the way by Austria’s Sebastian Ofner (ATP 45), eventually prevailing 4-6 6-2 6-2.
Another highlight of the day was a standout win for Alex Michelsen (ATP 65) in a spicy all-American meeting with Taylor Fritz (ATP 12). The 19-year-old Californian needed five match points to eventually see off his compatriot 6-4 4-6 7-5 and advance to his first quarter-final in an ATP Tour clay-court tournament.
The Gonet Geneva Open has not been a happy hunting ground lately for world No. 15 Ben Shelton, who went out to an Italian player in his opening match for the second year running. Flavio Cobolli did what Marco Cecchinato had done to the American in 2023, wresting the initiative as his opponent lost his way.
Shelton was seemingly in control at a set and 4-2 up only for the man from Florence to turn the tables and triumph in three sets. A Roland-Garros junior doubles champion in 2020 with Dominic Stricker, Cobolli will now take on Alexander Shevchenko (ATP 61) in the quarter-finals on Thursday, the Kazakh player having earned a second-round walkover when his opponent, Emil Ruusuvuori of Finland, withdrew because of illness.
A runner-up in Geneva in 2021 to Casper Ruud, Denis Shapovalov (ATP 123) reacquainted himself with victory at the Parc des Eaux-Vives. The recipient of a wild card, the Canadian left-hander won 12 of the last 13 games against Argentina’s Federico Coria (ATP 69) to come back from 4-1 down in the opening set and secure a comfortable 7-5 6-0 win.
Situated in the same quarter of the draw as Novak Djokovic, could the former world No. 10 kick on and cause an upset at the Gonet Geneva Open? We should go some way to finding an answer to that question on Wednesday, when Shapovalov takes on Tallon Griekspoor (ATP 27) in the round of 16. The Dutchman delivered the goods against the USA’s Chris Eubanks (ATP 43) on Tuesday, winning 6-4 1-6 6-3, and is sure to pose a stern test for the Canadian.
Wednesday’s headline match is the meeting between Novak Djokovic and Yannick Hanfmann (ATP 85). The German, who was in no mood to give Andy Murray a way back into their first-round tie, is a tough proposition on clay, as the world No. 1 knows only too well and acknowledged in his press conference today. He has only one thing on his mind in Geneva, though, and that is winning.
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Andy Murray’s (ATP 75) hopes of taking on Novak Djokovic in the next round are hanging by a thread after he endured a torrid Monday afternoon at the hands of Yannick Hanfmann (ATP 85). The Scot was trailing 7-5 4-1 when torrential rain handed him a reprieve until 1pm on Tuesday, though he will have to break back twice to have any chance of taking the match into a deciding set. The chances of Murray doing that look slim, however, given that he won only 12 points on his serve in eight games against the German, an out-and-out clay-court specialist.
Murray’s big brother Jamie and his New Zealand playing partner Michael Venus made a nervy start to their Gonet Geneva Open men’s double title defence, prevailing 6-3 3-6 10-8 against Romain Arneodo and Tristan-Samuel Weissborn.
The tournament lost its first seeded player earlier in the day, when rising Hungarian star Fabian Marozsan went down 4-6 6-7 (4) to Kazakhstan’s Alexander Shevchenko in the opening match on the Court Central.
Finally, wild card recipients Luca Margaroli and Damien Wenger, the last two Swiss players left in the tournament, put up a brave fight in the second set against the experienced Lloyd Glasspool and Jean-Julian Rojer (a winner here in 2017 with his former team-mate Horia Tecau) before losing 1-6 6-7 (6).