Cincinnati: Brandon Nakashima maintained his impressive form on Friday (local time), defeating sixth seed Taylor Fritz 7-6 (11-9), 4-6, 6-3 to progress to the semi-finals of the Cincinnati Masters.

Nakashima launched his post-Wimbledon hard-court swing with a semi-final run in Washington — where he was eliminated by Fritz — followed by a runner-up finish at the Montreal Masters, and has now recorded his finest performance in Cincinnati with the US Open commencing in under a fortnight.

Nakashima withstood 22 aces from Fritz, who also registered 31 unforced errors during the contest.

After falling behind by a break in the deciding set, Nakashima responded to level at 3-3 before securing another break to establish a 5-3 lead.

He out-hit his powerful countryman and sealed the victory on his first match point with a forehand winner.

"I've gotten a lot of confidence over the summer," Nakashima said. "In the final set I trusted my game, I'm proud with how I ended the match.

"Today I was trying to hit bigger against him than in Washington, that's what got me through.

"I've had a pretty good last few weeks, I've spent hours and hours on the court - I'm proud of myself," he added. "I now have the opportunity to win more matches."

Nakashima will meet Frances Tiafoe in an all-American semi-final after Tiafoe defeated Italy's Lorenzo Musetti 7-6 (7-2), 7-5 in a match that saw the opening set extend beyond an hour.

Tiafoe required four match points to finally prevail, securing victory with a service winner that Musetti failed to return.

The encounter was contested at a methodical yet high-intensity tempo, with several games spanning four to six minutes.

"He's a hell of a player, he makes you beat him - and that's what I did," said Tiafoe, who was broken while serving for the match before claiming the final two games. "Each match is its own story. I just go out and compete as hard as I can."

In the women's draw, Czech qualifier Sara Bejlek built on her victory over world number one Aryna Sabalenka, recovering from a set down to defeat Madison Keys 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5).

The 20-year-old Czech endured a difficult start against the American, a former Australian Open champion and 2019 Cincinnati winner.

Bejlek trailed 3-0 before losing the opening set, but rode a series of momentum changes to reach the last four, where she will face either fourth seed Coco Gauff or Marta Kostyuk.

Bejlek secured the initial break in the final set before Keys rallied to force a tiebreaker, in which Bejlek overturned a 4-2 deficit before sealing the win with a winner down the line on match point.

"I just kept believing in the match no matter what," said Bejlek, who claimed her maiden WTA title in Abu Dhabi in February as a qualifier.

"I believed much more than ever, it was always in my head."

Following a solid opening set, the 24th-ranked Keys broke in the third game of the second set, but the 35th-ranked Bejlek broke back in the sixth game and held serve for a 4-3 advantage.

Keys responded with a love service game, but Bejlek broke two games later to send the match into a deciding third set.

"I was trying to cool down in the second set, I was pretty nervous so I didn't want to think about what was going on," Bejlek said.

AFP