Sandgren, Norrie sail into final

AUCKLAND: New Zealand-raised Briton Cameron Norrie and American Tennys Sandgren will contest the ATP Auckland Classic title after winning their semi-finals in contrasting fashion on Friday.Norrie outlasted Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff in a three-set battle of the big servers 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 while Sandgren comfortably had the measure of Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-4, 6-2. Sandgren and Norrie have played each other six times in the past, with Norrie winning four of their encounters. “Three times in a row he beat me. In consecutive tournaments in the fall of 2017, which wasn’t a lot of fun,” Sandgren recalled. Norrie, who was born in South Africa and raised in New Zealand before moving to Britain, broke Struff at 6-5 to take the first set. Struff took the early initiative in the second set, with Norrie dropping a serve for the first time this week. There was a further service break each before Struff held on to take the set.

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