No. 3 seeds Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz defeated the alternate team of Guido Andreozzi and Manuel Guinard 6-3, 7-6(8), to become the first German team to reach the final in Rolex Shanghai Masters history.

Krawietz/Puetz broke in the sixth game of the opening set after saving two break break points early on. In the second set the Germans broke to go up 4-3 but were broken in the next game. Both teams held the rest of the way before going into a tie-break. In the tie-break the Germans went up 5-1 before Andreozzi and Guinard won the next four points. The Argentine and French duo fought off three match points before Krawietz closed out the match with a backhand volley winner.

With the win, last year's Nitto ATP Finals doubles champions moved up from seventh place to sixth in the PIF ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings. 

Krawietz and Puetz will take on the first-time duo of Andre Goransson and Alex Michelsen in Sunday's final.

"This is super important, especially when you consider where we are in the season and where we are in the race to Turin," said Puetz, who is appearing in his third career ATP Masters 1000 final. He won in 2021 Paris and was runner-up in 2022 Cincinnati (both w/Venus). "Hopefully we can get another one tomorrow. Either way, it was a good trip to China. Just try to recover for now and get ready for tomorrow."

They have only dropped one set in four matches en route to their fourth ATP Tour final of the season, the first since winning on home soil in Halle in June. They also were finalists in Munich and Adelaide.

"The goal is always to be in Turin among the last eight teams, so I think we're almost there," said Krawietz, who is appearing in his first career ATP Masters 1000 final. "The season has been very good. Of course, here and there in the slams would be of course be nice to get further. But, OK it happens. Everybody can play, of course. But in general we are happy with this win, as Puetzy said, a very important win, so let's see tomorrow." 

They are 4-7 together in ATP Tour doubles finals. Krawietz is 12-11 in career tour-level doubles finals and he's appearing in his first ATP Tour final in Asia. Puetz is 11-12 in ATP Tour doubles finals and his lone title in Asia came in 2022 Dubai (w/Venus).

"I think we've been playing well," said Puetz. "The tennis part is one thing, and then also we've done pretty well competing, kind of toughing it out.  The round before we were down 7-6, 5-4, opponents serving. We didn't put our head down really at all, we just continued to play. Kind of same thing today. We could have got really upset there after getting broken in the second, because we were so close. And then wasting a few match points but we just stayed tough. I guess we're 37 and 34 years old, so it's doable, but it's still, nonetheless it's not easy, and we're really proud of that."