Stan Wawrinka, Mischa Zverev advance to Geneva Open final
Defending champion Stan Wawrinka advanced to the Geneva Open final by beating unseeded Andrey Kuznetsov 6-3, 7-6 (4) on Friday.
The top-seeded Wawrinka will face qualifier Mischa Zverev of Germany, who has peaked this week after a poor clay-court season and beat second-seeded Kei Nishikori 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in the other semifinal.
Wawrinka, the US Open champion, will seek a 16th career singles titles and a seventh on clay, including the 2015 French Open. Zverev is looking for his first title at age 29.
Still, Zverev beat the thirdranked Wawrinka when they last played, at the Swiss Indoors in Basel in October.
Wawrinka clinched with a service winner against the 85th-ranked Kuznetsov.
Earlier, Zverev wasted two match-point chances on Nishikori's serve before breezing through his next service game to clinch with a backhand volley winner.
The final on Saturday will be only the second of Zverev's injuryhit career. The Russian-born lefthander was runner-up at Metz, France, in September 2010.
As recently as March 2015, Zverev had a ranking over 1000 and was being overshadowed by his younger brother Alexander, now a top-10 player at age 20 after winning the Rome title last weekend.
Mischa Zverev's win over topranked Andy Murray at the Australian Open in January — before a quarterfinals loss to Roger Federer — lifted him to a then-career best No. 35.
However, he had a 1-6 record on clay in recent weeks and needed to come through qualifying to get into the Geneva main draw.
Djokovic and Nadal could meet in French Open semifinals
Unfortunately for Rafael Nadal, the French Open draw didn't make things easy.
Fortunately, though, he is back in top form as he starts his quest for a 10th title at Roland Garros.
The 14-time Grand Slam champion was drawn in the same half as defending champion Novak Djokovic, Milos Raonic and upand-coming Dominic Thiem on Friday.
In addition, the fourth-seeded Nadal will also need to deal with the talented and unpredictable Benoit Paire in the first round.
The 30-year-old Nadal, who retired last year before his third round match with a wrist injury, has a 722 record at the clay-court major and is the only player with nine trophies from one Grand Slam tournament.
This season, he has been the dominant player on clay, winning 17 straight matches on his favorite surface and three consecutive titles before Thiem halted his run in Rome last week.
In Paris, he could face Djokovic or Thiem in the semifinals.
Djokovic can't boast the same confidence as his Spanish rival after struggling with form and confidence recently.
Federer, who won the Australian Open in January, is skipping Roland Garros, focusing instead on his preparations for the grass and hard court events.
So much has changed for Djokovic since he completed a career Grand Slam at the French Open last year by beating Andy Murray in the final.