US top seed Taylor Fritz dropped an early yesterday morning marathon to Alejandro Davidovich-Fokina of Spain, while the UK’s Emma Raducanu and Canada’s Leylah Fernandez reached the semi-finals of the ATP and WTA DC Open.
World number four Fritz, two points from victory in the ninth game, dropped the last five games in falling to the 26th-ranked Spaniard 7-6 (7/3), 3-6, 7-5 after three hours and five minutes in a match ending just before 2am.
Davidovich-Fokina advanced to the semi-final against US fourth seed Ben Shelton, who beat sixth-seeded hometown hero Frances Tiafoe 7-6 (7/2), 6-4.
Photo: Getty Images via AFP
Fritz, who had 20 aces and six double faults, served for the match in the ninth and was up 30-0, but lost, then failed to take advantage of three double faults by Davidovich-Fokina in the 10th game.
The other men’s semi-final would send French lucky loser Corentin Moutet against Australian seventh seed Alex De Minaur, who eliminated American Brandon Nakashima 6-4, 6-4.
Moutet withstood leg cramps to eliminate eighth seed Daniil Medvedev 1-6, 6-4, 6-4.
“I tried to survive every point because it was hard physically,” Moutet said after fighting off leg cramps. “I’m just proud of myself.”
Raducanu reached the brink of her first WTA final since winning the 2021 US Open, ousting Greece’s Maria Sakkari 6-4, 7-5.
Fernandez, whom Raducanu beat in that Flushing Meadows championship match, reached the other semi-final by dispatching American Taylor Townsend 6-4, 7-6 (7/4).
Raducanu, who missed most of 2023 after hand and ankle surgery, and part of last year with a left foot injury, reached her first WTA semi-final since last year at Nottingham by dispatching Sakkari in sweltering conditions of 35°C.
“It was one of the toughest matches conditions-wise I’ve ever played in,” Raducanu said. “Those points in the second set, I was getting a bit wobbly I’m just happy I could close it out and it was two sets.”
“I think the humidity here, as well, it just makes it feel completely like you have just opened an oven and it just stayed open and your head is in there. That’s how it feels,” she added.
Left-hander Fernandez overcame leg cramps in the second set in advancing to face third-seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, who beat Polish fifth-seed Magdalena Frech 6-3, 6-3.
Raducanu would next face Anna Kalinskaya, who defeated Danish fourth seed Clara Tauson 6-3, 7-5.
Raducanu, the UK’s first women’s Grand Slam singles champion since Virginia Wade in 1977 at Wimbledon, beat four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka in the second round before downing Sakkari after a medical timeout in the second set.
“Brutal conditions. Right in the peak heat of the day. It was incredibly difficult,” Raducanu said. “I had to call a doctor on. Wasn’t feeling too good in the second set.
“When it’s at that stage you know you’re going to suffer and you have to just go until you physically can’t anymore. It could be a little dangerous but you just leave it all out there on the court as an athlete,” she said.
Raducanu rallied to win the final five games of the match, calling it a “big benchmark” to reach the semis.
“You get to a point where you’re so tired that you don’t really know what you’re doing anymore, and I think maybe that helped,” Raducanu said.
Fernandez called it a “good steppingstone” to reach the semis, fight off leg cramps to break Townsend on her eighth chance in the 10th game to reach 5-5 on the way to victory.
“It was definitely an adventure,” Fernandez said. “This was the first time I’ve had to go through this. I’m proud I was able to stay mentally tough.”
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