Fritz survives an all-American scare
Taylor Fritz is into the Washington semifinals, but he had to dig out of trouble to get there. He beat fellow American Alex Michelsen 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (6) in Friday’s quarterfinals at the Mubadala DC Open.
Michelsen held a match point at 6-5 in the deciding tiebreak. Fritz answered by taking the last three points, the thin margin between a semifinal ticket and an early exit. He also shook off a brief knee scare during the match and insisted afterward that he felt fine.
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The top seed goes down
The bracket lost its headline name on the same afternoon. Top seed and defending champion Alex de Minaur fell to Brandon Nakashima 7-6 (5), 6-4, an upset that reshaped the bottom half of the draw.
Nakashima now meets Fritz for a place in the final, an all-American semifinal that speaks to how deep the United States men’s game runs at this level. Fritz carries the higher seeding and the cleaner path into the match.
The other semifinal
On the far side of the draw, Alejandro Tabilo drew a meeting with Rafael Jodar. The 19-year-old Spaniard had already produced one of the results of the week, ousting fourth seed Lorenzo Musetti 1-6, 6-1, 6-4 to reach the last four.
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