The showman Tiafoe presents his candidacy in Cincinnati with permission of the emerging Arthur Fils

The battle between Americans for a place in the final of the ATP 1000 in Cincinnati leaned in favor of the ‘showman’ Frances Tiafoe who reached her second final in a Masters 1000 at the expense of Brandon Nakashima whom she defeated 7-5 and 6-3.

The Americans exchanged four consecutive breaks before leveling at 3-3 in the first set, but ‘Big Foe’ held serve to love in the seventh game and broke again to take a 6-5 lead before closing out the set on serve.

And he continued to maintain the initiative on the scoreboard and put the semifinal on track in his favor by breaking Nakashima’s serve to go 3-2 up in the second set and sealed the victory by maintaining his serve without giving up a single point.

The 28-year-old American will face the Frenchman Arthur Fils (22 years old and number 21 in the world), in an ideal preparation for the next big tournament of the year, the US Open, where Tiafoe reached the semifinals twice in 2022 and 2024.

But first he will have to face the opposition of the talented French player who will play in his first Masters 1000 final after beating Flavio Cobolli in the semis, 6-3 and 6-4 in just over an hour. It caps an impressive campaign on the American hard court, which includes two victories against Top 10 players in Cincinnati, De Minaur (8th) and Cobolli (10th), plus the quarterfinals of the Montreal Masters 1000.

Fils will try to win his second title of the season, after his victory at the ATP 500 Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell. If he wins, he would become the first Frenchman to win a Masters 1000 since Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in Toronto in August 2014.