Benjamin Bonzi will challenge Cameron Norrie in the final of the Metz tournament

Frenchman Benjamin Bonzi qualified for the final of the ATP 250 tournament in Metz on Friday by beating American Alex Michelsen 4-6, 6-0, 7-5 and will face Briton Cameron Norrie in the final, who came out in two sets 6-2, 7-6 (7-5) another Frenchman, Corentin Moutet. Bonzi, who is guaranteed to return to the top 100 in the world in the next ATP rankings, will have the opportunity to win his first tournament on the main circuit against an opponent who is however better ranked than him (57th).

During his week in Metz, Bonzi, 28, from the qualifications, already eliminated the Norwegian Casper Ruud (7th player in the world) in the second round on Wednesday, giving himself the first victory of his career against a member of the Top 10, then his compatriot Quentin Halys the next day. Former French number one when he reached 42nd in the world at the start of 2023, he fell to 124th place after a wrist injury.

Before arriving in Metz, he remained on six defeats in as many matches on the main circuit this season but relaunched in the Challengers tournaments, the second level, at the beginning of the fall, winning 17 victories in 18 matches. “I'm super happy to be in the final here, it's been a long time since I've experienced that. It does a lot of good for morale and confidence. There's one match left, I'm going to give it my all.”he promised after his victory.

If he started his match well against Michelsen, currently 44th in the world, by failing to make the break in the 2nd game, Bonzi then had to submit to the law of the 20-year-old American who won the first set 6-4.

“Absolute horror”

The Nîmes player started the 2nd set on a better note by taking his opponent's serve in the 2nd game before the American requested a medical time-out for abdominal pain. At the restart, Bonzi made another break point to lead 4-0 before Michelsen regained his strength. But it was the Frenchman who won the 2nd set on a beautiful bicycle wheel by once again taking the American's serve.

In the 3rd and final set, the two players multiplied the breaks and Bonzi let two match points slip away while he was leading 5-4. He did not miss another opportunity to take the American's serve to win on his third match point 7-5. “It was absolute horror. It's very, very hard to play a guy like that. You don't know what he's going to do when you don't have rhythm in serving on my returns. It's super hard to find continuity. To stay focused. The third (set) was very, very long, he played all the return games very, very well (…). I'm happy to get out of it but it was really complicated.”said Bonzi after his victory.

In the final he will face Norrie, much higher ranked than him at 57th, and who won his left-handed duel against Moutet, 66th in the world. The Briton managed to win the tie-break of the second set while he was led 2-5 by the Frenchman. Norrie, former world number 8, has already won five ATP tournaments but the last one dates back to Rio de Janeiro in February 2023.