HOUSTON — High-seeded Ben Shelton beat Brandon Nakashima 7-5, 7-6 (9) on Friday to advance to the semifinals of the U.S. Males’s Clay Courtroom Championship.
“Undoubtedly not a straightforward matchup in the present day with the best way Brandon was serving and enjoying,” Shelton mentioned. “He made issues actually troublesome, and I used to be positively feeling the strain in that tiebreak. However I am actually comfortable to get by.”
Shelton, 21, superior to his fifth tour-level semifinal and improved to 17-1 in opposition to gamers exterior the highest 50 within the ATP Rankings because the ATP Masters 1000 in Toronto in August.
He’ll face fourth-seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry, final yr’s runner-up, within the semifinals. Etcheverry led Michael Mmoh 6-3, 0-1 when Mmoh retired due to an damage. This would be the fourth ATP tour semifinal for Etcheverry, with all of them approaching clay.
In different quarterfinal motion Friday, defending champion Frances Tiafoe superior with a 7-6 (8), 6-4 victory over Jordan Thompson.
“I believed it was a very good match tonight,” Tiafoe mentioned. “First set was essential, actually, actually powerful. He broke me there at 5-5, I performed an ideal sport to interrupt again. I used to be down within the tiebreak more often than not and acquired out of there, and I performed a fairly good second set. It was a protracted two-set match, however I am comfortable to be within the semis right here as soon as once more.”
Tiafoe will meet Luciano Darderi in his 14th tour-level semifinal. Darderi beat Marcos Giron 6-0, 6-4.
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