By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Friday August 4, 2023
Taylor Fritz stormed past Jordan Thompson to top a productive day in the nation's capital. Frances Tiafoe was not so lucky.
Photo Source: Tennis Now
Taylor Fritz has developed a reputation as an iron-willed fighter over the years and the American did nothing to detract from it on Friday as he capped off a pair of matches in a six-hour span by pushing past Australia’s Jordan Thompson 6-3, 6-3 to reach the semifinals for the first time at the Mubadala Citi DC Open.
Fritz’s 77-minute thrashing was made all the more impressive by the fact that it came on the heels of his three hour and two minute epic takedown on Andy Murray - a riveting, physical encounter that was held over due to rain last night.
If there was fatigue – and surely there had to be – Fritz didn’t show it as he imperiously notched his 41st victory of the season and set a semifinal clash with Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands.
12th-seeded Griekspoor, a dangerous power baseliner who finished off a three-set win over Gael Monfils early on Friday, took down American JJ Wolf later in the day, 7-5, 6-4.
Frances Tiafoe, the No.2 seed in DC, also got a taste of double duty, and looked to be headed in the direction of the semifinals as well, after an impressive 6-2, 6-3 victory over China’s Shang Juncheng on Friday afternoon. But the American ran into a buzzsaw in the last match of the evening in the form of Dan Evans, the Brit playing a flawless match to end the hometown favorites hopes in straight sets, 6-4, 7-5.
It’s a bitter pill for Tiafoe, but in truth, there wasn’t much he could do against the in-form Evans, who hit enough highlight reel shots to create a video on the Tennis TV YouTube page called “Dan Evans God Mode vs Frances Tiafoe”.
Tiafoe, steely from the start, recovered a break in the second set, but couldn’t find his way into a breaker – Evans simply had all the answers and was too good on this night.
The 33-year-old and his dazzling hands will take on Grigor Dimitrov in the semifinals.
Funny that in a day marked by double duty by the other three players who reached the semifinals, the Bulgarian benefitted from a retirement by France’s Ugo Humbert and didn’t take the court at all.