Want to blunt Daniil Medvedev’s dazzling deep-court defence? The go-to tactic is seemingly a simple one — get to the net — but it’s much easier plotted than executed against the World No. 1. Stefanos Tsitsipas used the old-school strategy to great effect in a Saturday semi-final victory at the Western & Southern Open.

The 10th installment of the Medvedev vs. Tsitsipas rivalry saw the Greek emerge a 7-6(6), 3-6, 6-3 winner as the fourth seed used his all-court game to earn a hugely satisfying result against one of his most challenging rivals. With the help of 36 well-timed net approaches, Tsitsipas closed the gap to 3-7 in the pair’s ATP Head2Head series.

“There were some difficult shots I had to play a bit more,” the 24-year-old said of his measured game plan. “A few short balls I really took advantage of and came in. A lot of courageous serve and volleys, approaches to the net that definitely gave me that great win today.”

Two sets of high-quality tennis — both won by Tsitsipas — bookended a bizarre middle stanza in which both men lost focus for alternating stretches. The Greek saved a set point in the first-set tie-break as he won its final three points to lead, but quickly fell behind 0-5 in the second thanks to some untimely double faults.

He avoided the bagel and then some, getting to 0/40 as Medvedev served at 5-3, but could not convert and instead took his momentum into the final set.

“I knew I had to sign up for a difficult task, third set, it wasn’t going to be easy,” Tsitsipas said post-match. “He made it very physical and really demanding for me. I just took advantage of some of his missed first serves. I think I had a couple opportunities where it seemed to be going towards to my side.”

Tsitsipas claimed the lone break point of the final set in its sixth game, courtesy of a Medvedev double fault, and cooly served out the match to love with the help of strong net play — a formula he leaned on time and again throughout the two-hour, 23-minute match.

“He kept missing a lot of first serves consecutively and that gave me some time to think of my next move a little bit clearer,” Tsitsipas said, alluding to his opponent’s 49 per cent first-serve percentage. “He gave me a double fault on break point, which I think was very important moment for me psychologically to give my best shot. I was a few games away and I was very calm and concentrated in every single task that was given to me.”

The fourth seed won 75 per cent (27/36) of his net points in the match, showing great patience as he worked his way into attack in the rallies. While he hit some world-class volleys, his knack for well-timed approaches left him with a straightforward task on many of his trips to the frontcourt — at least as simple as it can be against the rangy Medvedev, who flashed his elite retrieving skills with a stunning forehand pass on the fullest of full stretches as he chased an early break in the final set.

The INSIGHTS In Attack statistics underline Tsitsipas’ devastating offensive output in the final set. The Greek turned the screws with his dexterity at net and a barrage of punishing forehands as he played 26 per cent of his shots from attack in the decider. 

Playing in his third straight Cincinnati semi-final, the Greek passed that stage for the first time to advance to his second Masters 1000 hard-court final (Toronto 2018). He will face Borna Coric, a 6-3, 6-4 winner against Cameron Norrie, in Sunday’s title match.

Tsitsipas leads the ATP Tour in matches won (46) and Masters 1000 matches won (19) this season.

Did You Know?
All four of Tsitsipas’ hard-court titles have come indoors on the ATP Tour, including his triumph at the 2019 Nitto ATP Finals. An outdoor title in Cincinnati would be his first hard-court Masters 1000 crown and his third overall trophy at that level (Monte Carlo, 2021-22).

Top seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury were untroubled on serve Saturday as they did not face a break point in a 6-4, 7-5 semi-final victory over Santiago Gonzalez and Edouard Roger-Vasselin at the Western & Southern Open.

After winning 31/35 (89%) of first-serve points, the two-time Grand Slam champions advanced to their second final of the season and now look to repeat their run to the Monte Carlo title in April (d. Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah).

Should Ram and Salisbury claim the trophy in Cincinnati, they will rise to No. 3 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings and strengthen their claim to a spot in the eight-team Nitto ATP Finals.

In Sunday’s final, the duo will face sixth seeds Tim Puetz and Michael Venus, who received a walkover from Holger Rune and Stefanos Tsitsipas.

A host of emerging talents will compete this week at the Winston-Salem Open, an ATP 250 hard-court event in North Carolina.

#NextGenATP stars Lorenzo Musetti, Holger Rune and Jack Draper will be seeking deep runs to further increase their Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals qualification chances in the final tour-level tournament before the US Open.

Grigor Dimitrov will lead the draw as the top seed, with Austrian Dominic Thiem in action.

Before play begins, ATPTour.com looks at five things to watch in Winston-Salem.

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1) Dimitrov Top Seed: The Bulgarian will look to bounce back from a disappointing first-round exit against Denis Shapovalov in Cincinnati when he makes his second appearance in Winston-Salem. The World No. 18 started the season strongly, reaching the quarter-finals in Indian Wells before advancing to the last four in Monte Carlo. Dimitrov will look to find the winning formula in North Carolina as he seeks his first title since 2017.

2) Thiem Makes Debut: Thiem showed signs that he was returning to his best in July, advancing to quarter-finals in Bastad and Kitzbühel, while he reached the semi-finals in Gstaad. Playing in his first hard-court event of the season, the Austrian will look to build further momentum on debut in Winston-Salem.

The former World No. 3, currently No. 228 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, opens against American J.J. Wolf and could play Dimitrov in the second round.

3) Musetti & Rune Seeking Second Titles: #NextGenATP stars Musetti and Rune will look to hit further heights when they compete in Winston-Salem. Italian Musetti, currently third in the Pepperstone ATP Race To Milan, lifted his maiden tour-level title in Hamburg before he came through qualifying in Cincinnati last week.

Rune, who is making his debut at the ATP 250 hard-court event, soared to his first tour-level trophy in Munich in April and arrives aiming to build on his battling performance against Cameron Norrie in Ohio last week. Good runs in Winston-Salem will see 20-year-old Musetti and 19-year-old Rune boost their already strong chances to qualify for the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals for a second consecutive year.

4) Pepperstone ATP Race To Milan Continues To Heat Up: Behind third-placed Musetti and fourth-placed Rune, the battle to qualify for the 21-and-under event is heating up. Draper, currently fifth, advanced to his first ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final in Montreal earlier this month, while sixth-placed Jiri Lehecka captured his maiden ATP Challenger Tour title of the year at the start of August.

Chun-Hsin Tseng of Chinese Taipei holds a 36-16 record across all levels this season and is currently eighth. Draper will play Fabio Fognini or Dusan Lajovic in his opening match, while Lehecka plays Peter Gojowczyk in the first round. Tseng takes on Hugo Dellien.

5) Mektic/Pavic Headline Doubles: Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic will be seeking their fifth title of the season as a team when they take to court in Winston-Salem. The top seeds will face tough competition from second seeds and Roland Garros finalists Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek and third seeds Matthew Ebden and Jamie Murray. Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovaara are seeded fourth in North Carolina.

Borna Coric waited nearly four years to reach his third ATP Masters 1000 semi-final. It’s no surprise he was able to handle a further delay of a few hours on a rainy Saturday at the Western & Southern Open.

But the Croatian didn’t take long once he got on court, cruising past Cameron Norrie 6-3, 6-4 in just over 90 minutes to advance to his second Masters 1000 final. Back in top form following shoulder surgery, Coric will face World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev or fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas as he bids for his first title at that prestigious level.

“It was a very tough day, a very long day as well,” the former World No. 12 said post-match. “I didn’t expect to play at 7:30. I came here at 3 o’clock and I thought I was going to play a little bit earlier. Then I thought I was going to play later because of the delay.

“It was a crazy day but in the end it did finish very good. I was obviously very happy with my tennis today, I was playing extremely well.”

Originally scheduled as a daytime match on centre court, Coric and Norrie instead walked onto the Grandstand just after 7:30 p.m. in Cincinnati as the schedule shifted in response to the rain. Norrie started brightly under the lights as he built a 3-1 lead in the opening set, but Coric snapped into gear to win five straight games and run away with the set.

“At the beginning I was not there, I was not feeling the ball very well,” the Croatian said. “Then I did find my rhythm. I started to serve better, I started to play much better and I think that was the key to the match.”

The Croatian did what Carlos Alcaraz could not do consistently enough against Norrie in the quarter-finals by bullying his opponent in the rallies, and he did not let up in the second set as he won eight straight points to surge ahead 4-2.

Coric’s baseline brilliance made up for a 43 per cent first-serve percentage, and he saved the lone break point against him in the second set before dropping just three points in his final four service games.

While the Croatian did not repeat his near-perfect quarter-final performance on first-serve, when he won 31 of 32 points against Felix Auger-Aliassime, he won a healthy 79 per cent of the exchanges behind his first delivery against Norrie. He finished the match with 22 winners, including seven aces.

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Having entered the Cincinnati main draw with a protected ranking, Coric has soared 104 places to No. 48 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings this week. He could reach as high as No. 29 with a victory on Sunday against Medvedev or Stefanos Tsitsipas.

The Croatian leads Medvedev 4-2 their ATP Head2Head series and is level with Tsitsipas at 1-1, including a fifth-set tie-break win in their most recent meeting at the 2020 US Open.

Coric has dropped just one set this week, in his second-round upset of Rafael Nadal.

Rain has suspended play at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati on Saturday, with the action not resuming before 4:15 p.m. local time.

World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev and Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas will meet in the semi-finals at the ATP Masters 1000 event following the completion of the second WTA singles match of the day. Caroline Garcia and Aryna Sabalenka are currently in the second set after the first WTA singles match was won by Petra Kvitova.

Croatian Borna Coric will then face four-time tour-level champion Cameron Norrie later.

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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.