Taylor Fritz wins twice to reach DC Open semis, Frances Tiafoe loses

WASHINGTON: Top-seeded Taylor Fritz went two for two at the DC Open on Friday to reach the semifinals, first beating Andy Murray in a three-setter briefly interrupted by climate protesters and then heading out onto a different court three hours later to eliminate Jordan Thompson at night.

The second-seeded man, Frances Tiafoe, a crowd favourite who grew up nearby in Maryland, couldn’t match Fritz’s feat, winning one match on Friday but losing his second, bowing out in the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 7-5 loss to No. 9 seed Dan Evans.

Fritz vs. Murray was one of several matches cancelled on Thursday because of rain, jumbling the schedule at the hard-court tuneup for the U.S. Open and forcing some players to compete twice on Friday.

Fritz, a 25-year-old from California who is the highest-ranked American man at No. 9, saved all seven break points he faced in the third set and hit 17 aces with tennis balls he deemed “awful” en route to a 6-7 (2), 6-3, 6-4 victory against Murray, a 36-year-old from Britain who earned three Grand Slam titles before he had two hip opera-tions.

That one, which Fritz said was played at an “insanely high level,” lasted more than three hours in the main sta-dium with the temperature in the mid-80s Fahrenheit (around 30 Celsius) and 60% humidity.

Then Fritz raised his season victory total to 41 — only No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz and No. 3 Daniil Medvedev have more — by beating Thompson 6-3, 6-3 in a much quicker contest at John Harris Court: 1 hour, 17 minutes.

“My body probably couldn’t have handled another battle like I had with Andy,” said Fritz, who won the title at Atlanta last week and will face No. 12 seed Tallon Griekspoor on Saturday for a berth in Washington’s final.

Before facing Fritz, Thompson completed a 6-2, 6-2 win over No. 11 Chris Eubanks in a match suspended late in the first set on Thursday. Griekspoor finished beating Gael Monfils in a match suspended on Thursday in the third set, then went out and defeated J.J. Wolf 7-5, 6-4. Tiafoe beat qualifier Shang Juncheng 6-2, 6-3, then had 2 1/2 hours off before facing Evans in the main stadium. Evans, who also beat Alexander Shevchenko on Friday, now takes on No. 5 seed Grigor Dimitrov. Agencies

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