INDIAN WELLS, California. Frances Tiafoe beat 10th-seeded Cameron Norrie 6-4, 6-4 on Wednesday to advance to the semi-finals of the BNP Paribas Open.
The No. 14 American snapped the 2021 champion’s eight-match winning streak to earn his first place in the semi-finals of the Masters 1000 tournament.
“Very happy today,” Tiafoe said on the court. “I played really well all week. Let’s keep up the good work.”
Tiafoe scored 22 winners and only made nine unforced errors. He punctuated the victory, which was briefly interrupted by rain, by serving a love game.
“I played very fast, very close to the baseline and put a lot of pressure on him,” Tiafoe said. “I didn’t let him increase the points and I moved my feet very actively, I was very aggressive.”
Tiafoe went undefeated in four matches in the tournament. Then he will play with Daniil Medvedev at number 5, who beat Alejandro Davidovich Fokin with a score of 6:3, 7:5.
Medvedev won his 18th match in a row and improved his record to 23-2 this year. A day earlier, he injured his right ankle in a three-set win over Alexander Zverev.
“When I warmed up, it hurt a lot,” Medvedev said. “But I knew I would play.”
But his troubles were not over. He fell to the court and opened a cut on his thumb in the sixth game of the second set. The cut was bandaged during a medical timeout.
Medvedev beat Davidovich Fokina in love to go up 6-5 before handing over the win. Medvedev won 12 of the last 14 points.
In women, second racket Arina Sobolenko won the last seven games of the match, beating sixth-placed Coco Gauff in the quarterfinals with a score of 6:4, 6:0.
No. 7 Maria Sakkari outplayed Petra Kvitova with the 15th seed 4-6, 7-5, 6-1.
Sobolenko improved her record to 16-1 this year, including her run to the Australian Open title. She said it took her four days to come down from winning her first major tournament.
“It was like right after the title we went back to the hotel and my whole team was drunk,” she said, laughing. “I don’t know how many liters they drank that day. It was the funniest and most memorable moment. Everyone was so stressed during those weeks that I think it was okay to have a few drinks. I didn’t drink.”
Gauff earned only nine return points and had no break points against Sobolenko.
“She didn’t give me any free points and I think I also gave away free points and didn’t hit the ball as deep as I needed to,” Gauff said. “Especially when you play with her, you have to get the ball deep.”
Source: www.espn.com
