KOBLENZ, January 20, 2018
Kenny de Schepper and Mats Moraing will compete in Sunday’s singles final of the €43,000 Koblenz Open.
In the pair’s second tour meeting, de Schepper gained his second win over Ilya Ivashka from Belarus. The No. 6 seed from France came back from a set down to secure a 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 victory in one hour and 41 minutes.
Ivashka, who knocked out top seed Andrey Kuznetsov in the opening round, broke his opponent’s serve two times in the first set but de Schepper put a lot of pressure on his opponent with his aggressive returns in the 12th game of the second set and gained the break to evenutally push the match the distance.
The Frenchman also had the better start into the third set, earning an early break. De Schepper kept his serve until the end of the match and finished the encounter after one hour and 41 minutes.
“It was very difficult today, as he played very fast and I did not have too much time to find into my game,” de Schepper told Tennis TourTalk afterwards. “From the beginning of the second set I serve very well, which was key today.”
De Schepper recovered from a one set deficit for the fourth consecutive time this week. “That’s something special but it’s great to play in this atmosphere. It can help you to play well.”
The World No. 152 started the season by reaching the semi-finals at the ATP Challenger in Nouméa and fell in the opening round of the qualifying to the Australian Open.
“It was tough to adapt to the conditions here,” the Bordeaux native explained. “I needed about three or four nights to overcome the jet lag but every day it is getting better.”
Moraing Masters Stakhovsky
Mats Moraing (photo: Florian Heer)
Atmosphere heated up inside the CGM-Arena when Moraing overcame third seed Sergiy Stakhovsky from the Ukraine 6-4, 6-3. In front of about 1,600 spectators, the World No. 205 from Germany fired 16 aces and broke serve three times to prevail after one hour and 12 minutes.
“I served very well today and kept fighting until the end,” Moraing was pleased with his performance. “The atmosphere here is great. The crowd is amazing.”
The 25-year-old will appear in his second ATP Challenger final of the season after he finished runner-up at the Bangkok Open to Marcel Granollers.
“It is very important to stay positive all the time,” he told with a smile. “I am looking forward to tomorrow’s final and we will see what is going to happen.”
De Schepper and Moraing will meet for the first time.
In Sunday’s doubles final, top sees Sander Arends from the Netherlands and Croatia’s Antonio Sancic will take on Romain Arneodo from Monaco and Austrian Tristan-Samuel Weissborn.
