Shelton Ends Tiafoe’s Dream in DC, Fritz Stumbles Late

In each of the past four seasons Frances Tiafoe has reached the quarterfinals at his hometown tournament, with high hopes that he could push through and join the honor roll at the fabled event that he grew up watching.

Once again he fell short of that goal as his good friend Ben Shelton got the best of him on a balmy Friday night at Rock Creek Park, 7-6(2) 6-4, setting up a semifinal with Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain.

It was a wild quarterfinal day on Friday with a pair of matches full of drama, and a lightning alert that paused play for an hour, which pushed back the night session by about 90 minutes.

In the first quarterfinal, Daniil Medvedev was stunned by Cagey Corentin Moutet 1-6 6-4 6-4 in a match that saw both players nearly wilt in the midday sun. In the end it was Moutet, who was particularly effective with his underarm serve, rally for one of the biggest victories of his career. Moutet, a diminutive southpaw that plays with sublime flair, will make his Top-50 debut on Monday thanks to his win.

He’ll face Alex de Minaur, who won the simplest victory of the day against Brandon Nakashima, 6-4, 6-4.

Shelton’s victory may look uncomplicated on the scoresheet, but he was down a break at 6-5 in the opening set before he rallied to break back and force a tiebreak. He played brilliantly in the breaker, ripping a colossal forehand for 4-2 and pulling away from there. The second set was tight as well, but Shelton had the better of the opportunities as he improved to 3-1 lifetime over his friend and rival.

“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.

Taylor Fritz, the No.1 seed was hoping to set up a clash with Shelton in the semis, but he was derailed by a spiky performance from Davidovich Fokina that finished at about 2 AM. The No.12 seed took over as Fritz suffered in the hot conditions, winning the final five games to seal his 7-6(3) 3-6 7-5 victory in three hours and four minutes. The opening set was what might have killed Fritz, as he rallied twice from a break down to force a tiebreak, but was blasted off the court in said breaker.

Fritz stormed back to take the middle set but he had nothing left down the stretch in the third and dropped the final five games.

“Today I was lucky. He was serving for the match, I was two points down from going to the locker room and going to Toronto,” Davidovich Fokina said.

So it is Shelton who is the last American standing in DC. The southpaw is the third American to have reached consecutive semifinals at the Citi Open.