A COUPLE of consistent clay court counter punchers will tackle each other in the 2020 ATP BMW Open final after winning through in their respective fantasy tennis semi-finals today. Third seed Roberto Bautista Agut and fourth seed Diego Schwartzman both won through against bigger hitters.

Bautista Agut took out the dangerous Andy Murray in an epic two hours and 46 minutes with neither player giving an inch. The Spaniard broke in the first set to claim it, before Murray finished better a set later with an 8-6 win in the second set tiebreaker. Bautista Agut left nothing to chance in the decider, winning an early break, and while he was broken back, he returned the favour immediately after and then held on for a memorable win.

Schwartzman had a much easier time against the plucky Cristian Garin. The fourth seed was too consistent for the seventh seed Chilean, outworking him with his footwork and varied shot play. Garin was impressive for the most part, but faded in the second set, dropping the last four games of the match to go down 6-4 6-1 in an hour and 24 minutes.

In terms of their head-to-heads, the pair have faced off twice in their careers, both at ATP Masters tournaments. Schwartzman won back in Monte Carlo, 2017 before Bautista Agut levelled the head-to-head last year with a win in Toronto. Bautista Agut will look for his 10th career title, while Schwartzman is gunning for title number four. Two of the Argentinian’s three titles have come on clay, whilst the Spaniard has not won a clay title since Stuttgart in 2014.

SEMI-FINALS RESULTS:

[3] Roberto Bautista Agut (ESP) defeated Andy Murray (GBR) 6-4 6-7 6-4
[4] Diego Schwartzman (ARG) defeated [7] Cristian Garin (CHI) 6-4 6-1