All-Top 15 final in Antwerp as Jannik Sinner faces Diego Schwartzman

In a dream final between Top 15 players, No. 13-ranked Jannik Sinner will face No. 14-ranked Diego Schwartzman for the ATP 250 crown in Antwerp on Sunday.

Sinner was the first to move into the final, outdoing Lloyd Harris, 6-2, 6-2.

The two had never played before, and with Harris’ season of upsets, it looked like another one was possible—Harris has recorded his first seven Top 20 wins this year, including his first three Top 10 wins over Dominic Thiem in Dubai, Rafael Nadal in Washington D.C. and Denis Shapovalov at the US Open.

But Sinner was just too strong against the South African from start to finish, breaking four times—and never getting broken himself—en route to a one-hour, 26-minute victory.

“I am very happy to be in the final,” Sinner told ATPTour.com. “He is having an incredible season, so best of luck for him to finish in the best possible way.”

Sinner is now through to his fifth ATP final of the year, having captured three titles at Melbourne-1, Washington D.C. and Sofia, and finishing runner-up to Hubert Hurkacz at the Masters 1000 event in Miami.

If he wins his fourth ATP title of the year in Antwerp, he’ll be tied for second-most ATP titles this year—Novak Djokovic, Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev have also won four this year. Casper Ruud leads the tour with five ATP titles this year.

Schwartzman spent almost exactly the same amount of time on court in the second semifinal of the day, defeating American rising star Jenson Brooksby in an hour and 25 minutes, 6-4, 6-0.

Brooksby had an excellent run to the semis, upsetting a seed (Reilly Opelka) and two Grand Slam quarterfinalists (Botic van de Zandschulp and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina), and it looked like he might keep his run going as he jumped out to an early 4-1 lead against Schwartzman.

But Schwartzman reeled off the last nine games in a row to close it out.

“I was just trying to put every ball in, and I think the first set helped me, because in the second set he was unable to do what he did in the first set,” the Argentine said afterwards.

“I kept my rhythm in the second set, which I think was the difference.”

Schwartzman is hoping to make it third time lucky in this year’s Antwerp final—he’s been to the final here twice before but finished runner-up both times, in 2016 (to Richard Gasquet) and 2017 (to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga).

He will be going for his second ATP title of the year and the fifth of his career.

Sinner and Schwartzman will be playing each other for the first time.