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Former world No. 7 David Goffin was glad with the performance he delivered in the Marrakech semifinal as he admitted he couldn't afford himself to play another long and exhausting match. On Saturday, Goffin saw off Federico Coria 6-3 6-3 to reach the Marrakech semifinal.
Goffin was coming off two long and exhausting match as in the round-of-16 he recovered from a set down to beat Pablo Andujar. In the quarterfinal, Goffin was down by a set before he stormed back to beat Roberto Carballes Baena.
Prior to Marrakech, Goffin had only made one ATP quarterfinal in 2022. After a series of early exits, Goffin has found his form this week and reached his first ATP final since 2021 February. "It was a short match, so it's good because the last two matches were more than two hours and 30 minutes," Goffin said after his win, per the ATP Tour website.
"It was not easy. At the beginning I was a little bit nervous. The energy was a little bit down so I had to push myself to play better, to come back, to break back. "After that, I started to feel more relaxed and my quality of ball was better, and then I started to play really well at the end of the first set."
Goffin routed Coria
Coria started the match with an early 2-0 lead but Goffin stormed back as he claimed breaks in the third, seventh and ninth games to overturn the deficit and win the first set.
After winning the first set, Goffin claimed the lone break of the second set in the eighth game and served out for the match in the following game. "I managed to deal with my emotions at the end to finish the match so I'm happy to play another final, especially here, the first tournament on clay," Goffin added.
"I will give everything tomorrow." Goffin plays Alex Molcna in the final. "He's a great fighter, he's moving so well," Goffin said of Molcan. "He's lefty so he's using his lefty game really well on clay, especially two days ago against Felix, he played well. So it's a tough opponent."