Ben Shelton sinks Frances Tiafoe to achieve Washington SFs | ATP Tour
Washington
Shelton sinks Tiafoe to achieve Washington SFs
Fourth seed to subsequent meet Davidovich Fokina
July 26, 2025
Scott Taetsch/Getty Photos
Ben Shelton is into his fourth semi-final of 2025.
By ATP Workers
Ben Shelton stopped the run of hometown hero Frances Tiafoe on the Mubadala Citi DC Open with a 7-6(2), 6-4 victory on Friday.
Matching the vitality of a vigorous night crowd, the 22-year-old Shelton dictated play along with his booming forehand and produced high-quality shotmaking to ebook his semi-final spot on the ATP 500.
“We all know tennis is a protracted journey. We’re going to play one another a bunch of occasions. Particularly, we’ve already performed on the exhausting courts, we’ve already performed twice on the US Open, and he beat me the latest time. It is robust to not cheer for a man like that,” Shelton stated.
Shelton, who by reaching the quarters already secured his rise to a career-high No. 7 in Monday’s PIF ATP Rankings, is into his eleventh tour-level semi-final. He reached the final 4 in Washington final 12 months and by matching that feat, Shelton is the third American to achieve the Washington semi-finals in consecutive years this century, becoming a member of Andre Agassi (2001-04) and Steve Johnson (2015-16).
The lefty was damaged to like at 5-5 within the first set, permitting Tiafoe to serve for the opener, but Shelton rapidly regrouped and broke again to pressure a tie-break. Shelton continued his pattern of in search of forehands within the first-set tiebreak, throughout which he additionally hammered a 144 mph ace. Within the second set, Shelton survived a prolonged, five-deuce sport at 3-3 to interrupt Tiafoe and deflate the sixth’s seeds hopes of advancing.
By avenging final 12 months’s US Open five-set loss to Tiafoe, Shelton improved to 3-1 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head collection with the 27-year-old. Shelton and Tiafoe partnered in Washington, D.C. doubles however misplaced within the first spherical.
Three wins shy of 100 tour-level profession victories, Shelton will subsequent meet twelfth seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
Davidovich Fokina shocked prime seed Taylor Fritz in an intense late-night quarter-final, battling via to a 7-6(3), 3-6, 7-5 victory. The 26-year-old, down 2-5 within the decider, gained 5 consecutive video games and superior to his first semi-final in Washington.
The Spaniard gained 67 per cent (88/131) of his first-serve factors, in response to Infosys ATP Stats. Together with his three-hour, four-minute victory over Fritz, he took a 4-3 lead within the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head collection.
“As we speak I used to be fortunate. He was serving for the match, I used to be two factors down from going to the locker room and go to Toronto. I’m very completely satisfied how I fought for right now,” stated Davidovich Fokina.