After an action-packed Friday in Cincinnati, the Western & Southern Open semi-finals look set to provide high-quality drama as the final North American ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event of the season reaches its climax.

Seven-time champion Roger Federer bids to extend his unbeaten streak in Cincinnati semi-finals (7-0) when he faces first-time semi-finalist David Goffin. Goffin defeated 6’8″ Kevin Anderson and 6’6″ Juan Martin del Potro on Friday to reach the final four.

Five-time runner-up Novak Djokovic is aiming to move one step closer to completing the Career Golden Masters by capturing the only ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title missing from his resume. Djokovic will face 2016 champion Marin Cilic, who is currently on a nine-match winning streak at the Lindner Family Tennis Center.

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Cilic vs Djokovic | Federer vs Goffin

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Meeting for the first time since a shock semi-final defeat at the 2017 Nitto ATP Finals, Federer and Goffin will meet for the eighth time in their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry (Federer leads 6-1). Having recovered from a set down to end Federer’s remarkable comeback season in London last year, Goffin will be aiming to record his second successive victory over the 37-year-old to reach his maiden Masters 1000 final.

Federer, on the other hand, will be looking re-establish control of the rivalry, having dropped just two sets in their opening six tour-level clashes. Federer is in pursuit of a record eighth Cincinnati crown and will be eager to reach his first Masters 1000 championship match since the BNP Paribas Open in March (l. to Del Potro).

After opening his career with a 1-4 record in Cincinnati, Federer has since won 44 of 48 matches at the Ohio-based tournament. The seven-time titlist has looked sharp in his first appearance since a quarter-final loss at Wimbledon to Kevin Anderson and is aiming to reach his sixth final of the season (3-2).

Coming into Cincinnati, Goffin had won just two of his seven most recent tour-level matches. But the Belgian has rediscovered his form this week with impressive victories over three Top 15 opponents, including World No. 3 Del Potro. Goffin will be looking to reach his first Masters 1000 final on his fourth attempt, having fallen at the final-four stage most recently at the 2017 Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters (l. to Nadal).

Earlier in the day, Djokovic will hope to end a two-match losing streak against Cilic to reach his first Masters 1000 final since the 2017 Internazionali BNL d’Italia (l. to Zverev). Djokovic won the opening 14 matches in his FedEx ATP Head2Head series against Cilic, but has since lost both meetings against the 2016 Cincinnati champion. Since arriving at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in May, Djokovic has emerged victorious in 25 of his 29 tour-level matches.

But, despite his current form, the 13-time Grand Slam champion has been forced to work hard for his place in the semi-finals. Djokovic has been taken to a deciding set in three of his four matches this week, including his victories over defending champion Grigor Dimitrov and former World No. 3 Milos Raonic.

Cilic will be keen to carry the momentum of his dramatic victory over Djokovic in their most recent encounter at the Fever-Tree Championships in June. Cilic saved one championship point before lifting his second trophy at the prestigious grass-court event in London after two hours and 57 minutes.

Like Djokovic, Cilic has also been forced to play multiple three-set matches en route to the semi-finals. But the 29-year-old has also found his best tennis under pressure, building on an encouraging run to the Rogers Cup quarter-finals last week (l. to Nadal).

Ten years ago today, on 18 August 2008, Rafael Nadal first rose to No. 1 in the ATP Rankings. The Spaniard had long become accustomed to playing a waiting game, in stark contrast to his on-court dynamism and tenacity. For 160 consecutive weeks, a record, he had sat in second position, denied a place at the summit of men’s professional tennis by Roger Federer, the No. 1 for a record 237 straight weeks.

In the 1,119 days between Nadal first rising to No. 2 on 25 July 2005 and finally becoming the 24th player to rank World No. 1, since the advent of the ATP Rankings in August 1973, the then 22-year-old had compiled a 220-37 match record and lifted 22 titles. He went 20-2, with three titles in 2005; 59-12 and five titles in 2006; 70-15 and six titles in 2007 and from 1 January to 18 August 2018 he compiled a 71-8 record with 8 titles.

“I had three-and-a-half good years – 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008,” said Nadal. “I was winning a lot of points every year, but there was a player that was winning more than me in Roger. That year, Novak [Djokovic] also started playing well, so for me he was another tough rival. I began questioning whether I would ever be No. 1, so it was important for me to achieve it. I believed I deserved it after playing at a high level for many weeks and it means a lot to me.”

To break Federer’s tight hold on No. 1, which had begun when the Swiss first achieved the ranking on 4 February 2004, Nadal had gone on a four-month tear, compiling a 47-2 record (including a 32-match winning streak across three different surfaces – clay, grass and hard courts). In that period between 21 April to 17 August 2005, Nadal won eight titles from 10 tournaments — including two Grand Slam championships at Roland Garros and Wimbledon (d. Federer both times), the Beijing Olympics gold medal (d. Gonzalez), three ATP World Tour Masters 1000s in Monte-Carlo (d. Federer), Hamburg (d. Federer) and Toronto (d. Kiefer), one 500-level at Barcelona (d. Ferrer) and one 250 at Queen’s Club in London (d. Djokovic).

Today, he remains at No. 1, albeit in his seventh different stint (Nadal and Federer have already moved between No. 1 and No. 2 on six occasions this year). With a 40-3 record and five trophies in 2018, Nadal has amassed 80 crowns in an illustrious career — including 17 Grand Slam championships and a record 33 Masters 1000 crowns — and with a 2,495 points gap over second-placed 21-year-old Alexander Zverev and 2,750 points ahead of Federer in the 2018 ATP Race To London, the legendary Spaniard is firmly in contention to finish the year-end No. 1 for a fifth time (2008, 2010, 2013, 2017). “To finish the year as World No. 1 is different, more important,” said Nadal. “The first time in 2008 was amazing, but it was more emotional and special to me in 2013 after overcoming problems with my knees.”

NADAL’S RECORD AT NO. 1 IN ATP RANKINGS

David Goffin already led by a set and a break against Juan Martin del Potro, but the Belgian wasn’t ready to hop into celebration mode just yet. At 1-1 in the second set, Goffin broke with a backhand return winner but he didn’t let out a shout; instead Goffin, very businessman-like, calmly walked to his chair for the changeover.

The 11^th seed applied that focus all match to beat the World No. 3 7-6(5), 7-6(4) and reach his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 semi-final of the season and fourth of his career.

Goffin extended his FedEx ATP Head2Head series lead against Del Potro to 3-1 by reaching his fourth semi-final of the year and his first since April (Montpellier, Rotterdam, Barcelona).

Goffin lost his opener in three of his past four tournaments, but he started to turn it around at the Citi Open in Washington, D.C., last month, reaching the quarter-finals before losing Greece’s #NextGenATP star Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Hard courts have been good to Goffin over the years. He has won almost 63 per cent of his matches on the surface (147/234), his second best surface after clay.

As much as possible, Goffin tried to turn his quarter-final against Del Potro into a baseline sprint, keeping Del Potro moving from side to side and opening up the court well by targetting the Argentine’s backhand and then exposing the open forehand side.

Goffin was also keen on attacking the Argentine. He claimed the opener with a stick backhand volley, his ninth successful trip to the net of the set (12/14 for the match).

Del Potro broke back in the second set and had three set points at 5-4 with Goffin serving, but Goffin erased them all and the Belgian came back once more in the tie-break, winning seven of the final eight points to advance.

Goffin will next meet Roger Federer or Stan Wawrinka. Goffin beat Federer the last time they played to reach the 2017 Nitto ATP Finals title match, but Federer leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 6-1. Wawrinka has beaten Goffin three of the four times they’ve played.

They call it a ‘duck shot’. A term that hunters use when referring to the medium-heavy lead shot used for shooting water fowl.  A single shot will not kill you, but absorb a few at once and before you know it you are bleeding out. That is what it is like playing against South Korea’s Duckhee Lee. 

Lee does not possess the heavy artillery to take you down with a single stroke, but don’t let him pull the trigger on both barrels or you will be bending over like an overweight hiker in the Himalayas.  In many ways, the 20-year-old reminds me of a boxer who wins by throwing disciplined combination punches of jabs, body shots and crosses while depending on good footwork to get out of trouble. 

By now, everyone knows Lee is hearing impaired, but what still surprises them is how he always seems to be in the right place at the right time. While one of his five senses might be lacking, Lee compensates with the most extraordinary innate ability to anticipate the direction of an opponent’s shot before it is struck. 

Last year around this time, the Korean held an ATP Ranking of No. 160. It seemed as if he was on the fast track to stardom. But Lee has slipped a bit since then and as every player knows, defending results without the help of a big weapon is very hard. Tennis parents and fans often do not understand why. They tend to look at the rankings as an absolute indicator of the winners and losers. Thankfully, tennis is not played on paper.

When a player is climbing the ladder and winning matches with delayed pressure, where the ball bounces always seem to be in his favor. Because that is what tennis is, a game of inches. But the next year, said player is a marked man and the pressure to at least maintain their ATP Ranking is turned up to high heat. And like crabs in a pot of boiling water, lower ranked players take aim and try their best to pull him down. Without a big serve or forehand to get out of trouble, long points get tricky. Very soon the losses pile up and before a man realizes it, he has lost his confidence and starts doubting the very strategy that made him so good the year before.    

Here in Gwangju, Korea, locals say it is the hottest summer in 100 years. That might be the reason for all the empty cases of Cass beer bottles and Jinro soju stacked up high in the back alleys. There is hot and there is very hot. And then there is what we have this week; eye squinting, scorched earth, gut-check hot that makes a man question how bad he wants to grind out a long rally. This week, players have shown a tendency to check out down the line or try ill-advised drop shots to shorten the points. Heat is the great equalizer of tennis. This week, they have opened more bags of ice than cans of tennis balls and ATP Supervisor Greg Wojcik had to change the daily start time for each match till the afternoon to avoid the dangerous noon sun. 

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There are some fine tennis players here who have good power and fluid strokes, and then there are some great competitors who win more matches with their head, heart and legs than a first serve. Which brings me to the third seed, Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan. Last year, the 21-year-old Kazakh held an impressive ATP Ranking of No. 95. Today, he sits at No. 239. Standing at 6’5”, he has a rocket of a serve. 

As we witnessed last week at the ATP Challenger Tour event in Chengdu, he is capable of serving 22 aces in a match. But in the same match, he also served 21 double faults. On Wednesday, Bublik managed to scratch out a second-round win against Benjamin Lock of Zimbabwe. 

Photo Credit: Jean-Philippe Fleurian

This week is special for Lock, as he got his first win in the main draw at an ATP Challenger Tour event against Yunseong Chung of Korea. Watching Lock practice and play, I have no doubt that more wins are soon to follow. At 6’6”, Lock stands ramrod straight and with a shock of blonde hair that will make you do a double take. Big Ben looks you straight in the eyes, says ‘thank you’ and ‘yes, sir’ and he doesn’t fidget with his phone or blow off serious topics. His grandparents played competitive tennis and so did his parents. 

Like Byron Black and Wayne Black, they also had a grass court at their family owned farm outside of Harare. But unlike the Black family, when the government changed and land reform policies took effect, the Lock family lost it all. Two years ago, I was in Harare and visited the Locks at their home in the suburbs. Over beers and barbeque, I listened to Benjamin’s father tell the story. Mr. Lock has lived a life of have and have not, but he does not live in the past. Full credit to Benjamin, his brother Courtney John and the entire Lock family for maintaining a rugged determination to play professional tennis under very tough conditions. Like life, nobody said tennis was fair and you don’t get those precious ATP Ranking points without working hard. You got to earn them the hard way and that is something that the Lock family understands.