Despite seeing his run of serving success end, second-seeded Taylor Fritz charged into the semifinals of the National Bank Open with a 6-3, 7-6 (4) win over sixth-seeded Andrey Rublev on Tuesday in Toronto.
Fritz’s next opponent will be fellow American Ben Shelton, the fourth seed, who registered a 6-3, 6-4 victory Australian Alex de Minaur, the ninth seed, late Tuesday night.
After winning 41 consecutive service games dating back to his initial match in Toronto, Fritz squandered a match point at 5-4 in the second set, then lost the next two points as Rublev gained the break.
Fritz never lost a point on serve in the tiebreaker to advance.
“That whole game was so shaky for me,” Fritz said of the lone time his lost his serve. “It’s weird because he was holding easy, I was holding easy. It felt so like calm and chill and all of a sudden I’m serving to be in the semis, the pressure of the game came out of nowhere.
“There’s no way to sugarcoat it, it was a tight game. My brain kind of turned off. The only thing you can do is come back and win the set. I would be a lot more upset about what happened in the game if I lose the match. Winning makes it feel not as bad.”
Fritz finished with a 20-6 edge in aces, and he converted both of his break points in the match.
A Wimbledon semifinalist last month, Fritz is seeking his third title of the year, having prevailed at Stuttgart, Germany, and Eastbourne, England.
Shelton, who wound up with an 11-1 ace advantage, got the lone service break of the first set for a 4-2 lead. Shelton logged two breaks of de Minaur’s serve in the third set sandwiching de Minaur’s lone break. The American then lost no more than one point in any of his final three service games.
Shelton, 22, and Fritz, 27, will face off for just the second time. Fritz earned a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in a round-of-64 match at Indian Wells, Calif., in 2023.
The other semifinal on Wednesday will feature top-seeded Alexander Zverev of Germany and 11th-seeded Karen Khachanov of Russia.
–Field Level Media
