Top seed Ben Shelton battled past Brandon Nakashima 7-5 7-6 (11-9) in hard-fought match after 2 hours and 13 minutes to reach the semifinals at the Fayer Sarofim & Co US Clay Court Championship in Houston.
Shelton saved all seven break points in his first head-to-head match against Nakashima to reach his fifth ATP Tour level semifinal and his third on home soil.
Shelton saved seven break points across three service games and broke serve in the 12th game to win the first set 7-5.
Both players did not face any break points in the first nine games. Nakashima saved two match points in the 10th game. Shelton went up a 4-1 lead in the tie-break of the second set before saving two set points at 5-6 and 7-8. The young US player sealed the tie-break 11-9 on his fifth match point.
“It was not definitely an easy matchup today with the way Brandon was serving and playing. He made things really difficult and I was definitely feeling the pressure in the tie-break, but I am really happy to get through. I think the crowd helped me a good bit today. I am just really grateful being out there”, said Shelton.
Shelton set up a semifinal clash against last year’s Houston semifinalist Tomas Martin Etcheverry, who was leading Michael Mmoh 6-3 0-1, when the US American player retired due to an injury. Etcheverry reached the fourth ATP Tour semifinal of his career.
Frances Tiafoe beat Los Cabos champion and sixth seed Jordan Thompson 7-6 (10-8) 6-4 after two hours. Tiafoe saved four of the five break points. Thompson earned an early break in the 11thgame to take a 6-5 lead. Tiafoe denied Thompson’s attempt to serve out the first set at 6-5 by breaking back in the 12th game. Tiafoe fended off a set point at 7-8 in the tie-break. The US player closed out the win by claiming the final three games in the second set to reach his 14th career semifinal.
“I thought it was a really good match tonight. The first set was crucial. It was really tough. He broke me at 5-5. I played a great game to break back. I was down in tie-break most of the time and got out of there, I played a pretty good second set. It was a long two-set match, but I am happy in the semifinals here once again”,said Tiafoe.
Tiafoe set up a semifinal match against Italy’s Luciano Darderi, who cruised past Marcos Giron 6-0 6-4. Darderi raced out to a 4-0 lead with a double break in the opening set and converted his fifth break point in the sixth game to take a 6-0 lead. Giron saved three break points in the sixth game to hold serve after four deuces. Darderi broke serve on his first match point in the 10thgame.
Darderi saved three match points against Denis Kudla in the opening round earlier this week. The Italian player won all 11 of his tour level matches on clay. He has moved up to number 62 in the Live ATP Ranking.
