Top seed Fritz makes ATP Dallas semis with fantastic finish

LOS ANGELES (United States) (AFP) – Top seed Taylor Fritz captured the last five points in a deciding tie-breaker to defeat fellow American Sebastian Korda and advance to the ATP Dallas Open semi-finals on Friday.

World number seven Fritz fought back to defeat 53rd-ranked Korda 6-7 (2/7), 6-4, 7-6 (7/5) and book a place against Croatian Marin Cilic, the 2014 US Open winner, in a Saturday semi-final.

Fritz, now 4-1 lifetime against Korda, fired 22 aces and won all four break points he faced to conclude matters in two hours and 30 minutes.

"Just (proud of) the way I handled those big moments in that match," Fritz said. "He was constantly putting a lot of pressure on my serve. He was playing really well.

"He put me in a lot of tough situations but every time I was down break points or in the tie-breaks I came through and played great tennis."

Fritz also fought back after suffering a right elbow injury returning a Korda shot in the second set.

"I just instantly got this really sharp pain in my elbow, served one serve afterwards -- luckily I made it -- and knew right then I needed to get the physio there. It was pretty bad," Fritz said.

"I had a couple games where I was really scared to snap my serve because I feel that pain I'm going to lose that point, but then I got some painkillers, I started to feel better and then I started to just trust it and it wasn't even something I was thinking of most of the second and the full third (sets)."

Korda seized a 5-2 lead in the final tie-break and served for the match up 5-4, but sent two forehands long and Fritz blasted a service winner on the final point for the triumph.

Fritz said on the 10th point, "I'm thinking I'm going to really commit to the return. The second I see it come off his racket I'm just going to be as explosive as possible after the return. I got a second-serve look at 4-5 and once I got that point I knew all the pressure was on him."

Cilic advanced by beating British qualifier Jack Pinnington Jones 6-1, 6-4.

Fritz is 2-1 in ATP play against 37-year-old Cilic, winning on Monte Carlo clay in 2022 and at Indian Wells in 2017 but losing a 2021 final at St. Petersburg.

"Both of us are going to be trying to do the same thing," Fritz said of a likely big-serving matchup. "It's going to come down to who can do it better."

Defending champion Denis Shapovalov of Canada faces Spain's third-seeded Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and US second seed Ben Shelton, ranked ninth in the world, meets Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic in later semi-finals.