Nick Kyrgios overcame six match points during a second-set tie-break to beat hometown credit Frances Tiafoe 6-7 (5), 7-6 (12), 6-2 in the Open quarterfinals on Friday night. in Washington, a tournament that serves as a warm-up for the US Open.
In their first meeting, Kyrgios had some distractions that caused him to lose the first set and then frustrated Tiafoe during the lengthy tie-break of the second, which ended when the Maryland native dropped his racket to the ground and kicked it.
This hard-court tournament is the first for Kyrgios since losing in four sets to Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon final. The Australian has a 21-7 record in matches so far this year and has reached his fifth semi-final, in which he will face Mikael Ymer, who defeated Sebastian Korda 6-2, 5-7, 6- 3.
Due to bad weather, top seed Andrey Rublev played two games on Friday and won both. In the first he overcame a second set tie-break to beat Maxime Cressy 6-4, 7-6 (8) in the afternoon and then beat American JJ Wolf 6-2, 6-3 in the quarterfinals. .
Rublev is going for his fourth ATP title of the year, which would put him on par with Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz.
His rival in the semifinals will be Yoshihito Nishioka, who defeated Daniel Evans 7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-5.
Kyrgios was due to wrap up his quarterfinal match on Friday afternoon but needed just 14 minutes to beat Reilly Opelka 7-6(1), 6-2.
In the women’s division, US Open champion Emma Raducano fell to Liudmila Samsonova 7-6 (6), 6-1.
In other quarterfinal matches, Xiyu Wang beat veteran Victoria Azarenka 6-1, 6-3, Daria Saville beat Rebecca Marino 6-1, 7-5 and Kaia Kanepi beat Anna Kalinskaya 6-7(4), 6. -4, 6-3.
