It will be a contest between first-time ATP finalists when Ilya Ivashka and Mikael Ymer collide in the Winston-Salem Open final on Saturday evening.
In a rare 250 tournament that seeds 16 players, not a single one managed to reach the title match. Instead, the winner’s trophy comes down to two players who are unseeded and ranked outside the top 60. It is by no means unusual for unexpected results to take place the week before a Grand Slam, but this is still a surprising matchup even by those standards; this will surely go down as one of the most surprising finals of the year.
But both men are fully deserving of their spots.
Ivashka has been displaying especially ruthless tennis this week. The 63rd-ranked Belarusian has defeated Andreas Seppi, Marin Cilic, Jan-Lennard Struff, No. 1 seed Pablo Carreno Busta, and Emil Ruusuvuori. It has not come out of nowhere, either, as Ivashka also made it to the Eastbourne quarterfinals, the Wimbledon fourth round, and third rounds at the Tokyo Olympics and in Washington, D.C.
Ymer has been in stellar form, as well. The world No. 90 is coming off clay-court quarterfinal appearances in Gstaad and Kitzbuhel (had a match point against defending champion Casper Ruud). So far in Winston-Salem he has posted victories over Stefano Travaglia, Albert Ramos-Vinolas, Max Purcell, Frances Tiafoe, and Carlos Alcaraz.
The 22-year-old Swede frustrated more powerful opponents in Tiafoe and Alcaraz to no end by getting ball after ball back in play. That may work for a while against Ivashka, but scores of 6-2, 6-1 against both Struff and Russuvuori plus a straight-set upset of Carreno Busta are daunting.
Ivashka is simply on fire, but it won’t be easy for anyone in a nervy match that is the biggest of each finalist’s career.
Pick: Ivashka in 3
Ika in 2….but congrats to both players!
I hope they dont all tire themselves out
eg can see Alcarez losing to Norrie over 5 sets