There always seems to be so much at stake when Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas face each other on a tennis court.

In fact, of their nine-match history, all meetings but one have come at the ATP Masters 1000, Nitto ATP Finals or Grand Slam level. Saturday’s matchup at the Western & Southern Open, what will be their 10th encounter, is no exception, a spot in the 2022 final hanging in the balance.

World No. 1 Medvedev holds a 7-2 advantage in the ATP Head2Heads.

“He’s one of the best,” said the No. 4 seed Tsitsipas, who advanced to his third consecutive Cincinnati semi-final via a tight 7-6(5), 5-7, 6-3 decision over 2013 finalist John Isner. “I’m going to have to play my game. Of course, an obstacle like Daniil is never easy, but I’m going to try to stay concentrated, try to approach my game in the most precise, best manner. I’ll let my tennis do the talking, and the rest will present itself if it’s something that I deserve.”

Medvedev, who’ll be the top seed at the US Open later this month, continues to prove himself in big moments. In his 7-6(1), 6-3 dismissal of American Taylor Fritz in the quarter-finals, he improved to 20-6 in tie-breaks at ATP Masters 1000 events.

“That’s great, because a tie-break is a funny thing,” said Medvedev, through to his first Masters 1000 semi-final of the year. “We call it a ‘lottery.’ I do think it’s that way a little bit. I remember when I had my crazy run in 2019 [when he reeled of six straight finals], I won a lot of tie-breaks [11] in a row. Then I remember a time in my career when I lost five or six in a row. Now I’ve won a lot again. I just try to do my best, play every point. For sure, you lose some, you win some. But 20-6 is a good record. I’m happy about it.”

Medvedev, a titlist here during that unheard-of run in 2019, claimed their most recent encounter, a 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 semi-final victory in January at the Australian Open.

“I’m happy with my level,” said the 26-year-old World No. 1. “If I can continue to play this way, and especially during the match raise my level, I can beat anybody.”

Medvedev leads the four semi-finalists in the INSIGHTS Steal metric, having won 34 per cent of his points from defence this week. Tsitsipas paces the pack in Conversion rate after seeing home 76.1 per cent of points from attack. The Greek also tops the chart with a 26.1 per cent In Attack score, which shows that he’s played more than a quarter of his shots in attack in reaching the semis. Learn more about INSIGHTS.

Limited to just nine matches in 2021, and only 16 thus far in 2022, Borna Coric is suddenly resembling the player who once climbed as high as No. 12 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. Back in business after recovering from shoulder surgery, the 26-year-old Croat is through to his first ATP Masters 1000 semi-final in four years, having pushed aside the Top-10 likes of Rafael Nadal (7-6(9), 4-6, 6-3) and Felix Auger-Aliassime (6-4, 6-4).

Credit the work he’s put in outside of match play, especially on the serve. Against Auger-Aliassime in the quarter-finals, Coric hit eight aces to just one double fault, and won an astounding 97 per cent (31 of 32) of his first-serve points.

“I was serving a lot last week,” said Coric, who after an opening-round, 6-3, 6-2 loss to countryman Marin Cilic in Montreal, put in some serious hours on the practice court. “I took the risk with my shoulder. I never know how much I can serve, but I just took the risk and was practising really hard.”

Next up for Coric, who has surged 86 places to No. 66 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings, is 9th seed Cameron Norrie of Great Britain. It marks the left-hander’s second career ATP Masters 1000 semi-final after winning Indian Wells last October.

“He’s a great competitor,” said Norrie, who is up to a career-high No. 9 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings and who can move to No. 8 with a title or runner-up finish. “He’s really got some good level. I’ve watched him quite a lot this week. He beat Rafa, obviously, the other day. He’s playing some of his top level. He’s won his matches very comfortably, so he’s going to be feeling pretty fresh and ready to go.”

The foes split their two previous meetings, with Norrie prevailing in the Round of 16 in Shenzhen in 2018, 6-4, 7-6(8), and Coric taking a 6-2, 6-2 second-round decision in Rome in 2019.  

Starting the week at No. 152, Coric is the second-lowest-ranked Cincinnati semi-finalist since 1973 (No. 203 Byron Bertram, 1975).

Former college star Cameron Norrie has played the role of professor this week at the Western & Southern Open, schooling three 19-year-olds on his way to the Cincinnati semi-finals. In Friday’s quarter-finals, he gave third seed Carlos Alcaraz a lesson in staying the course as he answered the Spaniard’s comeback bid with a turnaround of his own in a 7-6(4), 6-7(4), 6-4 victory.

Norrie, who also beat teens Holger Rune and Ben Shelton this week, surrendered a 4-1 lead in the second set before battling back from 1-3 down in the decider with an unflinching performance in the face of the Spaniard’s charge.

While Alcaraz was below his best for stretches of the evening, he produced one of the points of the season at 5/4 in the second-set tie-break. The electric exchange sparked the 19-year-old into life, but Norrie never folded even as he was 10 points from defeat.

While the Briton did not play the flashy brand of tennis that Alcaraz used to beat him in each of their previous three meetings, he frustrated his opponent with his steady game on centre court, patiently grinding from the baseline and capitalising on his hard-earned opportunities to step into the court.

Norrie was one the ropes at the start of the third set, with Alcaraz having whipped the crowd into the frenzy in forcing a decider. After saving a break point in his opening service game, he fell behind 1-3 as Alcaraz grew in confidence. But Norrie responded instantly and did not face a break point again, earning the decisive break in the set’s ninth game.

More to follow…

Two days after a statement win against Rafael Nadal, Borna Coric showcased his staying power on Friday at the Western & Southern Open by reaching his first ATP Masters 1000 final since 2019. The Croatian, who returned to the ATP Tour in March after shoulder surgery, earned a one-sided 6-4, 6-4 win against Felix Auger-Aliassime to continue his best week of the season.

The World No. 152 is the second-lowest-ranked Cincinnati semi-finalist since the start of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings in 1973, and the third-lowest-ranked ATP Masters 1000 semi-finalist since the start of the prestigious series in 1990. But he wont be setting records like that much longer — he has skyrocketed 86 places to No. 66 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings with his run this week and could rise as high as No. 29 with his first Masters 1000 title.

Asked how he has found such a high level after his first-round loss to countryman Marin Cilic in Montreal, the Croatian credited a hard week of practice after his early exit in Canada.

“Honestly I’m not sure, because last week I was playing really bad,” he said post-match. “I was training really hard from last week. I lost on Monday and I decided to train a lot. I was spending many hours on the court, so I think that was the key, to be honest. I was playing many sets and I was trying to find my game.”

Coric’s dominant quarter-final win was built on a near-perfect performance on first serve. The Croatian won 31 of 32 points (97 per cent) behind his first delivery and did not face a break point in the one-hour, 40-minute contest. He was never pushed as far as deuce on serve, his easy holds freeing him up to swing out on return.

“I just came [to Cincinnati] and I just started to serve very good,” he said of his strong performance this week. “I don’t want to say too good because then tomorrow I’m not going to serve good, so I’m going to just say it was very solid. I was serving a lot last week. I took that risk with my shoulder. I can never know how much I can serve but I just took the risk and I was practising really hard.”

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With powerful ground strokes consistently finding the corners, Coric created nine break chances across five return games, converting in the third game of the opening set and the seventh of the second. Auger-Aliassime had a brief opening on return at 30/30 after he battled through a 12-minute service hold to lead 3-2, but Coric dialled back in to avoid a momentum shift. 

The Canadian saved two match points in a comeback win against Jannik Sinner on Thursday, but he could not repeat those heroics as Coric raced through two love holds to close out the match. The 25-year-old roared towards his team after grinding out one of the longest points of the match on his first match point, finishing as a deserved winner.

While he spent much of the match on the front foot, Coric also excelled in defence. According to the INSIGHTS: Steal metric, the Croatian won 41 per cent (17/41) of points from defence, well above the Tour average of 34 per cent.

With wins against Nadal and Auger-Aliassime, Coric has defeated two Top 10 players in a single tournament for the third time in his career. He will next face either Carlos Alcaraz or Cameron Norrie in Saturday’s semi-finals.

Auger-Aliassime, despite the defeat, boosted his chances this week for a debut at the Nitto ATP Finals by moving up one spot to sixth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin with his second straight Masters 1000 quarter-final run.

Top seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury are inching closer to their second title of the season (Monte-Carlo) after handling Karen Khachanov and Denis Shapovalov 6-1, 7-6(6) Friday at the Western & Southern Open.

Should the two-time Grand Slam champions leave Cincinnati, Ohio with the trophy, the duo would rise to World No. 3 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings (currently fifth) and strengthen their claim for a spot at the eight-team Nitto ATP Finals.

On Saturday, they will look to avenge their loss earlier this season to Santiago Gonzalez and Edouard Roger-Vasselin, who won the previous meeting in Indian Wells in a match tie-break.

Gonzalez and Roger-Vasselin backed up their upset over Montreal champions Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski on Friday by ousting two-time Roland Garros champions Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies 6-3, 6-7(2), 10-6.

Gonzalez and Roger-Vasselin have played only one other tournament together this season: Indian Wells, in which they made the final before falling to home favourites John Isner and Jack Sock.

Also in Friday’s doubles action, Tim Puetz and Michael Venus saved all four break points faced, surging to a 6-3, 6-3 victory over second seeds Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos.

Puetz and Venus, who were champions in Dubai earlier this season, will look for a spot in their fifth final of the year when they collide with either Holger Rune and Stefanos Tsitsipas or Marcelo Arevalo and Jean Julier-Rojer in the semi-finals.

Stefanos Tsitsipas reached his third consecutive Western & Southern Open semi-final on Friday, outlasting John Isner 7-6(5), 5-7, 6-3 to set a popcorn clash against World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev.

In a rain-disrupted clash, the Greek weathered a storm on court as he blunted the American’s big-hitting game with heavy topspin, while he clinically took his one break chance in the third set to advance after two hours and 22 minutes in Cincinnati.

“I knew coming into the match that it is never easy playing against him,” Tsitsipas said in his on-court interview. “You have to deal with lots of different variations of play and I think the most important thing is to stay patient because there will be a lot of situations that you can’t really control. That is what I was trying to do today.

“It all came [down] to a few points at the end of that set and I was just able to hang in there and make one more ball back and not give him much to work with.”

With his 45th tour-level win of the season, the 24-year-old has improved his ATP Head2Head series record against Isner to 5-2. He will look to reach his first final at the hard-court event when he faces Medvedev on Saturday in what will be a difficult test, with the top seed leading the Greek 7-2 in their ATP Head2Head series.

“I am going to have to play my game,” Tsitsipas said looking ahead to his match against Medvedev. “I have been playing well so far. Of course an obstacle like Daniil is never easy. I am going to try and approach my game in the most precise and best manner and let my tennis do the talking.”

Tsitsipas has enjoyed strong results at ATP Masters 1000 events this season, retaining his title in Monte Carlo before he reached the semi-finals in Madrid and the championship match in Rome.

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In a hard-fought first set, both gave little away on serve, meaning a tie-break was left to decide the opener. With Tsitsipas leading 4/3, rain briefly forced the players off court. When they returned, the Greek zoned in to seal the set.

Isner refused to go away in the second set and was rewarded for his aggressive returning in the 11th game when he broke to lead, before he rallied from 0/30 to serve out the set.

In a close third set, it was Tsitsipas who found an extra gear. The fourth seed took his only break point of the match to move 5-3 ahead and then showcased mental toughness to hold from 0/30 and triumph.

Tsitsipas looked to step inside the baseline and attack for large periods of the match. As shown in his INSIGHTS: Conversion Score, the Greek (76 per cent) had a slightly higher success rate than Isner (72 per cent) when moving forward, which was the key to his victory.

Isner, who advanced to the final in Cincinnati in 2013, edged Benjamin Bonzi, Hubert Hurkacz and Sebastian Korda in three sets earlier this week to reach his first Masters 1000 quarter-final of the season.

Did You Know?
Tsitsipas holds a 7-1 record against Americans this season, with his one defeat coming against Jenson Brooksby in Indian Wells.

Daniil Medvedev is one of the game’s great defenders from deep behind the baseline. On Friday, he produced one of the great defensive plays of the year to steal a point – and a break of serve – from Taylor Fritz that put him on the path to victory in the quarter-finals of the Western & Southern Open.

Trying to stave off break point to avoid going down 0-2, Fritz fired a 121mph serve that stretched Medvedev nearly outside the doubles alley at the beginning of what proved to be a 24-shot rally. The American immediately found himself on offense, standing on top of the baseline for much of the rally while Medvedev was nearly in the front row of the stands, forced to lunge for several balls, but determined to stay in the point and force an error.

After Medvedev struck a backhand down-the-line, which clipped the net, the top-ranked American hit a forehand approach shot cross-court that sent Medvedev outside the TV camera’s view. At full stretch and running out of court at a rapid clip, the four-time ATP Masters 1000 champion managed to throw up a massive moon-ball lob that Fritz took as a baseline overhead.

Medvedev returned the bounced overhead and Fritz made an unforced forehand error on the next ball, perhaps going for too much in the belief that Medvedev would again track down any response that didn’t paint the line.

In his on-court interview, Medvedev enthusiastically recounted the pivotal point.

“I got a little bit unlucky with the net at first because I was going down the line. It was a pretty good shot,” Medvedev said. “I felt he was tiring in the rally, so it could be a gamechanger.

“Finally, he had an easy shot, so I just ran actually. Usually you lose nine out of 10 points like this, maybe even 19 out of 20, so I just tried to put the ball as high as possible to make it tough for him and pray the ball goes in.

“If you look at my reaction first, I thought the ball was probably going out. You can’t judge the trajectory like this, so I stopped playing. I was also really tired. But when I saw the ball dropped in, I was like ‘Okay, let’s continue’, and I managed to put the next ball in and it was enough for him to miss. Sometimes these points happen and if it is on a break point it is a great feeling.”

Medvedev, who will remain World No. 1 at least through the US Open, will play the winner of John Isner and Stefanos Tsistsipas in the semi-finals Saturday.

Daniil Medvedev’s quest for a fifth ATP Masters 1000 title moved into top gear at the Western & Southern Open Friday, when he downed Taylor Fritz 7-6(1), 6-3 to reach the semi-finals in Cincinnati.

The top seed backed up his impressive victories over Botic van de Zandschulp and Denis Shapovalov with an all-round display against the American to advance after one hour and 38 minutes.

The 26-year-old fired 32 winners as he laid blows with his racquet, while he hung tight in the key moments during their first ATP Head2Head meeting, saving three set points in the first set to improve to 9-3 in Masters 1000 quarter-finals.

Medvedev suffered a disappointing second-round defeat against Nick Kyrgios in Montreal last week. However, he has found his rhythm in Cincinnati and is now 14-4 at the hard-court event.

“Cincinnati fast courts and fast balls and I have always liked it. But always tricky matches, especially between two great servers,” Medvedev said in his on-court interview. “I feel like me and Taylor served good, even if we aren’t John [Isner] maybe! I knew that it was going to be a tight match.

“The first set he was on top of me a little bit. He had many more chances than I did on my serve, but I managed to stay in. There were some set points where I could have missed and no one would have talked about it, it would have been normal. But I managed to stay in the set and that helped me win the match.”

Medvedev lifted his maiden Masters 1000 trophy at the event in 2019, before he enjoyed a run to the semi-finals last season. He will look to continue his strong record in Ohio when he faces Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas or American John Isner in the last four.

The 2020 Nitto ATP Finals champion, who is assured of retaining his No. 1 status in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings until at least through the US Open, is aiming to capture his second title of the year and 14th crown on hard overall. The four-times Masters 1000 champion won the trophy in Los Cabos last month, while he reached finals at the Australian Open, ‘s-Hertogenbosch and in Halle.

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In front of a lively American crowd, both came out swinging as Fritz looked to penetrate Medvedev’s defence with his flat groundstrokes. The 11th seed returned with great depth throughout and had three set points in the set on Medvedev’s serve. However, the top seed stayed consistent from the baseline to save one at 4-5 and two more at 5-6, before he raced away in the tie-break to lead.

Medvedev was locked in at the start of the second set and won a mammoth rally to clinch an early break. The 26-year-old acted as a brick wall from the baseline as he covered the ground to hang in the point. He threw up a huge lob, which to his surprise dropped in, before Fritz eventually hit a forehand wide, with Medvedev raising his arms in celebration. The top seed then stayed solid on serve to triumph.

Medvedev now holds a 20-6 record in tie-breaks at Masters 1000 events. A record he is proud of.

“That is great because tie-breaks are a fine thing. We call it a lottery and I do think it is this way a little bit. I remember when I had the crazy run in 2019. I think someone told me once that I won a lot of tie-breaks in a row,” Medvedev said. “I don’t know if it was eight or 12, so I was like, ‘That is cool.’ I just try to do my best and win every point. You win some and lose some. But 20-6 is a good record, so I am happy about it.”

The 11th seed Fritz was aiming to reach his second Masters 1000 semi-final of the season, after soaring to the title in Indian Wells in March. The 24-year-old is currently 10th in the Pepperstone ATP Race To Turin as he looks to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals for the first time.

Carlos Moya was presented with a chance to make history at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati 20 years ago and he grabbed it with both hands. The former No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings captured the crown at the ATP Masters 1000, something no other Spaniard had done before him. In the summer of 2002, the Mallorcan beat World No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt 7-5, 7-6(5) to achieve his feat. A glass ceiling had been smashed by a player who was brave, determined and, above all, ready to pounce when opportunity knocked.

It was 11 August 2002 and sport threw up a conundrum that Moya was more than ready to solve.

He had made his way through a draw that was at the mercy of his forehand, a stroke that, with the aid of the Ohio sun, was capable of bringing any player to his knees. It proved too much for French player Ciryl Saulnier and the Dutch Sjeng Schalken, before the American Michael Chang and German Rainer Schuettler also succumbed to its venom. In the semi-final, Juan Carlos Ferrero, just a 22-year-old on his way to the elite, was unable to deal with the barrage.

However, on the day of the final, Cincinnati was about to throw a curveball.

A summer tournament whose intense sunshine would habitually test the fitness of players to the limit had clouded over from one day to the next. As dawn broke, it was considerably overcast, the mercury had plummeted and the water that had been so sought-after during the days of scorching heat, was threatening to fall from the sky. For the players, affected as they are by the impact of temperature on the behaviour of tennis balls, it was a complete game changer.

Just one step from the trophy, and Moya was in trouble. On the other side of the net was the World No. 1; the Australian Lleyton Hewitt. Things did not look good. Moya had to take it to the best player on the planet, a player who was lightning quick and whose legs never tired. A player whose flat ball was deadened on a humid day. The Spaniard would have to stop a man who, just a few weeks earlier had won Wimbledon from the baseline. Standing on the other side of the net was an impenetrable wall.

“Before the match began I was convinced I could win it. But once we started to play I wasn’t really feeling the ball. The conditions were completely different to the previous days,” remembered Moya at the time. “I’d been playing in a lot of sun and heat. I had the feeling that the ball wasn’t bouncing as high. My serve wasn’t helping me so much. Also, there was wind. It takes time to adjust to those conditions.”

The early exchanges were an indication of the scale of the mountain he had to climb. Moya and Hewitt were embroiled in a physical battle, where the Spaniard’s looping shots, so dangerous under a blue sky, were barely caressing the Australian’s armour. At 4-4, in the heat of the battle, the skies opened and the match was stopped for two hours, splitting one of the year’s most important clashes in two.

Having failed to dent the confidence of his adversary, Moya realised he now had an opportunity. Rain meant time; time to put together a plan.

“When the rain came, I left for the locker room, where I started watching the replay of the match,” said the Spaniard at the time. “That’s when I realised that I wasn’t hitting the ball very hard. I could see it on the TV. I told myself ‘I’m in the final because I’ve taken so many risks, because I’ve been hitting the ball really hard. That’s all I have to do!’ After the rain, I was in no doubt about the path I had to take and it worked pretty well for me.”

Instead of giving in to exhaustion after an intense US swing and in a match where every ounce of strength would be key, Moya set about studying exactly what was happening.

“It wasn’t the rain that helped me, it was seeing the replay. I was putting too much topspin on my forehand, but that didn’t bother him because the ball wasn’t kicking up,” he explained. “I decided to go on the attack, to play flatter and look for winners. To try and approach the net and make the points shorter.”

Putting his plan into action, Carlos managed to take the first set. Suddenly the final was his to lose. But then things took a turn for the worse. Hewitt dominated the second set to take a 5-2 lead, a huge advantage in the hands of the world’s best player. Clinging to his new tactics, Moya found two service breaks and let slip two set points, before embarking on an unforgettable tiebreak.

“I thought we were going to a third,” Moya said. “It’s not easy to break back twice. But I decided to relax, I had nothing to lose and I simply played my own game. I looked for winners and everything went wonderfully.”

Moya had defeated the best player in the world and, more importantly, dispelled any doubt that he was still up there himself. The win took him back into the Top 10, a place only within reach of players that have an x-factor, leaving behind the back injury he suffered in 1999, the year that he had reached No. 1 himself. It was a tough blow for a 22-year-old and the first serious setback in his career, also one that would see him drop outside the best 50 players in the rankings.

“Winning here puts me back in the Top 10, something that I have been waiting to do for three seasons, since I was injured. It’s taken me a while to recover, but now I’m playing pretty well again,” recognised a Moya, whose hunger to get back to winning ways knew no bounds. “In my best season, I’d won two titles, before coming here I’d already claimed three, so it was a good year at that point. After this week, it’s excellent. My goal was to get back in the Top 10 and I’ve done it.

“I wasn’t expecting to win the tournament because, although I was playing well, there are many players who are performing well. Hard court is not my favourite surface, but I can adapt to it. It’s a huge surprise to me winning this tournament.”

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His return to the elite hardened the mind of a player who was destined to make history in Spanish tennis. He had suffered the sour taste of being forced to take a step backwards, but now he was back and ready to savour the moment.

“This year, I’ve learnt that you just have to enjoy yourself on court. When you have a tough moment, you have to think that the good ones won’t take long to happen. That’s all,” he explained. “I just want to enjoy the court, that’s the most important thing to me. Feeling healthy, fit. Now I know I’m healthy and ready. When this happens, I know I can be a dangerous player. I haven’t forgotten how to play tennis, even though I’ve been injured for a while. I wasn’t expecting to return to the Top 10, I knew that it would be a tough journey to take. But here I am again.”

The Spaniard, who had taken the titles in Bastad and Umag and come close in Sopot before his breakthrough in Cincinnati, was firing on all cylinders once again with his explosive tennis.

“It’s been a very successful period because I’ve won three tournaments and reached a semi-final in five weeks,” Moya said. “If anyone had told me that a month and a half ago, I would have said they were crazy. But everything is possible for me. If I’m lucky, I can play well and win any tournament.”

The win in Cincinnati, where there had been no Spanish champions in its 104-year history, meant that Carlos had set a new record. The first No. 1 in Spanish tennis, a figurehead for so many, had once again raised the bar where it seemed impossible.

“We’re not talking about a small tournament. This is a Masters Series,” Moya added. “It’s very important to me. I am very proud to be the first Spaniard to achieve various things. This is another one for me. And I feel very happy.”

It had been half a decade since an American man reached three ATP Masters 1000 quarter-finals in the same season, a drought 11th seed Taylor Fritz ended on Thursday at the Western & Southern Open. With his fourth consecutive win over 2021 runner-up Andrey Rublev, 6-7(4), 6-2, 7-5, the 24-year-old earned a place among the last eight and his first matchup with World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev.

Fritz has now reached at least the quarter-finals in Indian Wells, Monte Carlo and Cincinnati, the BNP Paribas Open ultimately resulting in his first-ever Masters 1000 title (def. Rafael Nadal, 6-3, 7-6(5)).

This time last year, Fritz was outside the Top 40 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, a string of frustrating opening-round losses in Washington, Toronto and Cincinnati weighing him down. He returned to Ohio in 2022 a different player in so many respects. Last month, the 13th-ranked Californian, whose entourage these days regularly includes a trail of Netflix cameramen seemingly documenting his every move, pushed through to his first major quarter-final at Wimbledon.

“I was playing pretty bad this time last year,” said Fritz. “It’s weird, because last year, I kind of just started playing really good tennis late in the year — the October [edition of] Indian Wells, is kind of where it all started changing for me. I started gaining confidence, playing really good. Up until that point, my ranking had dropped a tonne.”

“I just feel like a different player,” he added.

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Medvedev, who is guaranteed to retain his No. 1 Pepperstone ATP Ranking heading into the US Open thanks to Rafael Nadal’s opening-round defeat, is at home on the Lindner Family Tennis Center, where he took the trophy in 2019. All but one of his 14 career singles titles have come on hard courts, including Masters 1000 crowns in Cincinnati, Shanghai, Paris and Toronto. Though he’s shared the practice court with Fritz, it will be a whole new experiencing facing him with the semi-finals on the line on Friday.

“Taylor is a great player,” observed Medvedev after his 7-5, 7-5 dismissal of Canada’s Denis Shapovalov in the Round of 16. “We practised quite a lot of times before the start of the season. We had a session. I think he beat me. I told my coach, ‘Wow, it can be a good year for him.’ Then he won Indian Wells. Maybe he could have done better in some other tournaments, but he’s a Masters champion. I need to be at my best to try to beat him.”

No. 4 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas will aim for a third straight Western & Southern Open semi-final when he takes the court against American John Isner, a finalist here in 2013 (l. to Nadal, 7-6(8), 7-6(3)). The Greek star owns a 4-2 advantage in ATP Head2Heads, having defeated Isner at this same event, 7-6(2), 7-6(4), in the Round of 16 in 2020.

It’s been a challenging year for Isner, who came into the tournament in danger of falling out of the Top 50 for the first time since 2009. But a run to his first ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final of 2022 should provide just the boost he needs as he heads into the US Open.

“I love playing in North America on the hard courts,” said Isner, at 37 the oldest player remaining in the draw. “It’s tough — last week I wasn’t able to play Canada because I was a little bit nicked up. My knee’s been bothering me, but I’ve been able to get some good treatment.

“I feel pretty mentally refreshed. My family is with me,” he continued. “That actually helps. Putting three kids to bed at night is a bit tiring, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I’d rather have them on the road and have them wake me up super early in the morning, because it just puts me in a happy place. I think it allows me to play better tennis, especially in the tight situations.”

Isner defeated his doubles partner, 10th-ranked Hubert Hurkacz of Poland, in the second round for his first Top-10 win of the season, his first since taking down No. 7 Rublev in Toronto this time last year. Tsitsipas has a 16-5 ATP Masters 1000 tournament record this season, his best result the Monte Carlo title.

The American leads the eight Cincinnati quarter-finalists in the INSIGHTS: In Attack metric, having played nearly a third of his shots from attacking positions this week. Learn more about INSIGHTS: In Attack.

After a prolonged stretch away from the court, a healthy Borna Coric has been busy making up for lost time. The Croat, who last year underwent shoulder surgery, stunned No. 2 seed Rafael Nadal on Wednesday night, 7-6(9), 4-6, 6-3, and followed with a big win over another Spaniard, 15th seed Roberto Bautista Agut, 6-2, 6-3. The 25-year-old is in for another challenge in seventh seed Felix Auger-Aliassime, who’s into his fourth consecutive ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final after reaching the stage in Madrid, Rome and his native Montreal.

They haven’t faced each other since 2019, when they split decisions in Miami (Auger-Aliassime, 7-6(3), 6-2)) and Rome (Coric, 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-4).

Former Texas Christian University standout Cameron Norrie brought reigning NCAA titlist Ben Shelton’s dream run to an end in the Round of 16, 6-0, 6-2, earning a quarter-final shot at another streaking 19-year-old, No. 3 seed Carlos Alcaraz. The 2021 Indian Wells champ has come up short in all three of his meetings with the Spaniard, two of those losses coming this year at the Masters 1000 level in Indian Wells (6-4, 6-7(4), 6-3) and Madrid (6-4, 6-3).

Alcaraz, the only player to win multiple Masters 1000 titles in 2022, is the youngest Cincinnati quarter-finalist since Andy Murray in 2006. The teen will rise to No. 2 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings if he wins the title this week.

The Spaniard paces the quarter-finalists in the INSIGHTS: Conversion metric, winning nearly 80 per cent of points this week in which he’s gained an attacking advantage. Conversely, Auger-Aliassime leads the way in the Steal metric, winning 44.3 per cent of points from defensive positions. Learn more about Conversion and Steal Scores.