CANBERRA, January 15, 2016

Top seed Paolo Lorenzi and fifth seed Ivan Dodig will play for the $75,000 Canberra ATP Challenger title on Saturday after winning Friday’s semifinals in contrasting styles.

Dodig and third seed Daniel Munoz de la Nava faced off in the first semifinal. Dodig came out of the blocks quickly, breaking Munoz in his opening two service games, racing to a 5-0 lead. Munoz finally got on the scoreboard before Dodig served out the set 6-1. The second set remained on serve early, before Dodig broke at 2-2. Dodig broke again at 5-3, to close out the match 6-1, 6-3 in 71 minutes.

Lorenzi and Marcel Granollers put on an amazing display of tennis which lasted almost 3 hours. After three consecutive breaks of serve, Lorenzi went up 5-2. Granollers then fought back to level the scores at 5-5, before Lorenzi broke again at 6-5 to take the set. After trading breaks early in the second, play remained on serve to take it to a tiebreak. Granollers dominated the tiebreak, taking it 7-0 to force a third set.

The third set was all Lorenzi as he went out to a 5-2 lead with a double break. He served for the match and was just two points away, when Granollers again fought back to break twice and level at 5-5. Granollers service game, then had 7 deuce points before Lorenzi broke again. Lorenzi served it out to take the match and secure his finals birth.

In the doubles final, top seeds Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Santiago Gonzalez took on the Australian pairing of Jarryd Chaplin and Maverick Banes who were playing together for the first time in over 5 years. The Australian’s had been in good form all week knocking out both the second and forth seeds on their way to the final.

After a closely contested first set, it headed into a tiebreak. The top seeds prevailed, taking it 7-3. Things remained on serve in the second until 4-3, when Fyrstenberg and Gonzalez broke. They served out the match and claimed the doubles title 7-6, 6-3.

Doubles champions: Gonzalez and Fyrstenberg (photo: Ben Southall)