Ben Shelton sinks Frances Tiafoe to reach Washington SFs

Washington

Shelton sinks Tiafoe to reach Washington SFs

Fourth seed to next meet Davidovich Fokina

Scott Taetsch/Getty Images Ben Shelton is into his fourth semi-final of 2025. By ATP Staff

Ben Shelton stopped the run of hometown hero Frances Tiafoe at the Mubadala Citi DC Open with a 7-6(2), 6-4 victory on Friday.

Matching the energy of a lively evening crowd, the 22-year-old Shelton dictated play with his booming forehand and produced high-quality shotmaking to book his semi-final spot at the ATP 500.

"We know tennis is a long journey. We’re going to play each other a bunch of times. Especially, we’ve already played on the hard courts, we’ve already played twice at the US Open, and he beat me the most recent time. It's tough not to cheer for a guy like that,” Shelton said.

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 11th tour-level semi-final. He reached the last four in Washington last year and by matching that feat, Shelton is the third American to reach the Washington semi-finals in consecutive years this century, joining Andre Agassi (2001-04) and Steve Johnson (2015-16).

The lefty was broken to love at 5-5 in the first set, allowing Tiafoe to serve for the opener, yet Shelton quickly regrouped and broke back to force a tie-break. Shelton continued his trend of seeking forehands in the first-set tiebreak, during which he also hammered a 144 mph ace. In the second set, Shelton survived a lengthy, five-deuce game at 3-3 to break Tiafoe and deflate the sixth’s seeds hopes of advancing.

By avenging last year’s US Open five-set loss to Tiafoe, Shelton improved to 3-1 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with the 27-year-old. Shelton and Tiafoe partnered in Washington, D.C. doubles but lost in the first round.

Three wins shy of 100 tour-level career victories, Shelton will next meet 12th seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.

Davidovich Fokina stunned top seed Taylor Fritz in an intense late-night quarter-final, battling through to a 7-6(3), 3-6, 7-5 victory. The 26-year-old, down 2-5 in the decider, won five consecutive games and advanced to his first semi-final in Washington.

The Spaniard won 67 per cent (88/131) of his first-serve points, according to Infosys ATP Stats. With his three-hour, four-minute victory over Fritz, he took a 4-3 lead in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series.

“Today I was lucky. He was serving for the match, I was two points down from going to the locker room and go to Toronto. I am very happy how I fought for today,” said Davidovich Fokina.

Click here to read article