Nishioka, Thompson to meet in Atlanta Open final

The Atlanta Open final is scheduled for Sunday, July 28. Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka will face Australia’s Jordan Thompson after Nishioka beat Arthur Rinderknech and Thompson beat Juncheng Shang.

The semifinals began with the tournament’s youngest player and the first Chinese player to advance to the Open semifinals against 30-year-old Jordan Thompson. Thompson broke Shang’s serve in the third game and again in the ninth, leading to a 6-3 victory. It looked as though Shang was going to be crushed by the much more experienced Thompson. But Shang seemed to remember beating Thompson in Indian Wells a few months earlier, and came back strong in the second set to beat Thompson 6-4 and force a third set.

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But in the end, Thompson’s experience won out. He saved a break point in the third set with a serve-and-volley and drop-shot winner on point and broke Shang’s serve in the penultimate game to win 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.

“I talked to (Shang) just before, I think I told him I played a little bit better than I did in Indian Wells,” Thompson said. “That can happen when one player is in shape and the other player is not, but I just played a lot better today and had a really good match. It came down to the last minute and I ended up getting there.”

Shang’s star is still rising, and it was certainly a close match for a player so young in his career. Meanwhile, Thompson will look to add to his lone career title (won this year in Los Cabos) with a victory at the Atlanta Open.

“An ATP title is not nothing,” Thompson said. “I only have one and I’ve said before that players go their whole career without playing a final. So if I play another final, hopefully I can go all the way. I won’t take it for granted.”

And his opponent will be Yoshihito Nishioka, against whom Thompson has lost several times in recent years.

“Yoshi is another tough lefty, a really good competitor, with a boring style of play,” Thompson said, a pained expression on his face. “I think I’ve only beaten him once and he’s probably beaten me five or six times. I feel like most of the time it’s a battle. He definitely has my number.”

Nishioka defeated Arthur Rinderknech in three sets to reach his first final of the year. The match was incredibly close, with both teams committing a number of unforced errors. Nishioka dominated the first set 6-3 and looked set to win the match in straight sets. But his errors mounted and Rinderknech played a tighter game and broke Nishioka’s serve in the seventh game. He then won the set 4-6 with a 206 km/h ace.

The third set was a battle of wills, with both men battling for the final spot. Late in the third set, when it looked like the set would go to a tiebreak, Nishioka broke Rinderknech’s serve on the final point to win 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.

“He had a chance to break my serve in the first game of the third set,” Nishioka said. “It was a big match for me and I think he had a big chance but … I find a way. It can go either way, and today that’s what happened to me.”

After hitting the winning blow, Nishioka collapsed to the ground, elated. But he knew the toughest battle lay ahead.

“We know each other, we’ve played together a lot, we’ve even trained and we’ve even played in Challenger tournaments,” Nishioka said. “It’s going to be a long rally for sure. He has a great serve, but I think he’s trying to get to the net maybe on serve, so I have to worry about that. The groundstroke, it’s going to be a battle for sure. It’s going to be a mental battle tomorrow. We both want to win. Who can play aggressively, win big points like today?”

The Atlanta Open men’s singles final will take place on Sunday, July 28 at 4 p.m. The men’s doubles will follow this match, pitting Andre Goransson and Sem Verbeek against Nathaniel Lammons and Jackson Withrow.