Sousa eased past Marcos Baghdatis 6-1 7-5 in the earlier semi, the final shapes as a toss-up.He’s obviously not that uncomfortable out there, he’s playing some great tennis and is in the final for a reason,” Sock said. “So once again it’s a match where I’m going to have to play solid and play my game and try to dictate with my weapons.”
Meanwhile, Baghdatis captured the hearts of the crowd with his entertaining style earlier in the week but it was Sousa who stole the show in their semifinal clash.
Sousa asserted his dominance early, racing out to a 5-0 lead and clinched the first set in just 23 minutes.The Cypriot showed some signs of life in the second set and, while he only conceded one break point chance, that was all Sousa needed to reach his first Auckland final.
“It was a tough one today, he played very well,” Baghdatis said afterwards.
“I was a bit flat in the beginning, I got broken really early, it was tough to find my rhythm. He was very aggressive.
“I tried coming back, which I thought I did well, I had my chances at end of the second set at 4-3 and 5-4 on his serve.
“But I wasn’t aggressive enough to break him on his second serve and that’s about it.”
Baghdatis’ game improved dramatically in that second set, but he just wasn’t able to assert enough pressure on Sousa.
The Cypriot believes that had he would have that set he would have gone on to make it to the final.
“If I turned the second set and won it, I think I would have had a great chance to win the match and we’d be here saying I played a fantastic match,” he said.
“But in the first set I wasn’t there.
“I have a grand slam next week, so it’s good that it happened here and not in a grand slam.”
New Zealand tennis fans will be please to know that Baghdatis said he enjoyed his time in Auckland and is keen to come back again. He will play the veteran Russian Mikhail Youzhny in the first round of the Australian Open next week and said his run in Auckland has been good preparation for that.
“I think I had a good week,” he reflected.
“I found a good rhythm of tennis and there are a lot of positive things.
“All the negative things we saw with my coach, we’ll work on them and go from there. But I think this week was great.”
Sousa has gone all the way to the final without dropping a set, but he said this win was the one where he played the best tennis.
“I tried to be aggressive, he’s very solid from the baseline,” Sousa said of Baghdatis.
“He likes to counter attack, so I was trying to play fast, be aggressive, take control of the points and I think I made a great job of that in the first set.
“In the second, I had may chances, he had his but finally I went through.”
Sousa is the only Portuguese player on the top 50 and coming from a country with a population of 10 million, it’s a big deal back home for him to be in the final of an ATP tournament.
“It’s the farthest final from home I’ve ever played,” he said.
“But I feel that the fans are with me in Portugal, so I feel good and I’ll try to be 100 per cent tomorrow, to play a good match.”
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