Nakashima overcomes Fritz and meets Tiafoe in the Cincinnati semifinals

Brandon Nakashimanumber 22 in the world, continues to prolong his sweet moment and defeated his compatriot this Friday Taylor Fritz by 7-6(9), 4-6 and 6-3 to qualify for the semifinals of the Cincinnati Masters 1,000, where they will meet Frances Tiafoe who defeated Italian Lorenzo Musetti 7-6(2) and 7-5.

No player has added more victories than Nakashima this year on a fast surface (22) and this Saturday the American will have the opportunity to qualify for his second consecutive final in a Masters 1,000 after losing the Montreal final against Ben Shelton the previous Thursday.

Nakashima, who came into the match with a 1-4 record against Fritz, won a tight first set, with both players dominating on serve, leading the match to an exciting tiebreak. After exchanging leads and mini-breaks, Nakashima finally converted his fifth set point when Fritz sent the ball narrowly wide.

Fritz responded strongly, using an aggressive return to break Nakashima’s serve at the start of the second set, before closing the set with an ace and forcing the deciding set.

Fritz took advantage of his opponent’s unforced errors to break serve and take a 3-2 lead in the deciding set, but the momentum changed almost immediately when Nakashima recovered from 30-0 down to convert his second break point of the match and tie it at 3-3.

Nakashima won the final three games as Fritz’s errors piled up and the 27th seed’s confidence continued to grow, closing the set with a serve that extended the best streak of his career and gave him his fourth win against a top 10 of the season.

Tiafoe eliminates Musetti

Her opponent in the semifinals will be the winner of the duel between Frances Tiafoe, who needed two hours and 17 minutes to defeat Musetti in a match of only two sets, but of high intensity, finished with two consecutive breaks, one per side, in the last three games.

Musetti tied 5-5 after recovering from a break in the second set, but gave up serve in the next game and Tiafoe did not forgive in his last turn, to advance to the round.

In the head to head between the two, Tiafoe has won six of the seven previous duels against Nakashima.

The other semifinal will pit the Italian Flavio Cobolli against the Frenchman Arthur Fils.