There will be at least one French finalist from the first week of the year on the ATP circuit. While waiting for Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard's semi against Reilly Opelka in Brisbane, Alexandre Müller qualified for the 2nd final of his career on Saturday by overthrowing the Spaniard Jaume Munar (4-6, 7-6, 6-4) after 2h25 of combat in Hong Kong. To open his record on the ATP circuit, he will challenge the winner of the match between Kei Nishikori and Juncheng Shang.
And Müller has all the more merit because, like the day before against his compatriot Arthur Fils, he was off to a bad start. The 67th in the world was a set and a break behind (4-6, 1-3) but he held on and slowly but surely took the upper hand. Once back on level terms in the second set, the change took place in the tie-break which he started ideally by winning the first five points.
Despite his opponent's comeback, he converted his third opportunity to return to a set all, before driving the point home by delighting the opponent's service from the start of the last act (4-6, 7-6, 2-0) . And Müller was able to hold this advantage until the end, without conceding the slightest break point despite Munar's baseline qualities. He will try to do better than in Marrakech in 2023 where he stumbled on the last step against Roberto Carballes Baena.
