ATP Tour

'Evolving' Shelton downs De Minaur to set Toronto SF showdown with Fritz

American lefty Ben Shelton has moved inside the cut for the Nitto ATP Finals after snapping Alex de Minaur's seven-match winning streak in the quarter-finals of the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers in Toronto Tuesday night.

Leveraging his monster serve and high-kicking forehand that helped him win the majority of extended baseline battles, Shelton romped to a relatively comfortable 6-3, 6-4 win, which contrasted the back-to-back third-set tie-break victories he endured over Brandon Nakashima in the third round and Flavio Cobolli in the fourth round.

"I'm really happy with the win; it showed a lot of mental toughness,” Shelton said. “He's broken me a million times in practice and he's a really tough competitor. I served out the sets confidentially and I'm really excited about the chance to be in the semi-finals."

Shelton, who served 13 aces in the 91-minute win, will now look for his first win over second seed Taylor Fritz in a rare all-American Masters 1000 semi-final (just the fourth since 2000). Fritz won their lone Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting in Indian Wells in 2023.

Shelton clubbed eight forehand winners and capitalised on an unusual 28 unforced errors from De Minaur, according to Infosys ATP Stats. He also won 32 baseline points to De Minaur’s 29, edging the Australian 12-7 in rallies of nine or more shots.

"A lot of guys see me as just a server and not as much as a baseliner," Shelton said. "Psychologically, when I get into a match and go into lockdown mode and put a million balls in the court, my rally ball does come with a good bit of weight and I feel I surprise guys at times.

"Being able to win the longer rallies and be comfortable in my own skin and not feeling like I’m rushing to make something happen is a huge part of my evolution."

Victory over 2023 Toronto finalist De Minaur lifted Shelton two spots to seventh in the PIF ATP Live Race to Turin as he looks to make his debut at the season finale from 9-16 November in Italy.

Shelton, 22, who also became the youngest American Masters 1000 semi-finalist since Andy Roddick 20 years ago in Indian Wells, will improve his career-high PIF ATP Ranking from No. 7 to No. 6 – leapfrogging Novak Djokovic – should he win the title.

Looking ahead to his clash with Fritz, just the fourth all-American semi-final at this level since 2000, Shelton said, "Yeah, really excited. I played him right when I came out on tour. We had a great battle in Indian Wells… He's a big-match player. He's been carrying the flag for the United States in the big tournaments as of late. He's clutch, serves well. We're great friends, and it's a match that I'm really excited about.”

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Earlier Tuesday Fritz defeated World No. 11 Andrey Rublev 6-3, 7-6(4) after firing 20 aces, matching his career-high mark for a three-set match.

De Minaur, the recent champion at the Washington ATP 500, has a tour-best 24 hard-court match wins this season. He drops one spot to eighth in the Live Race but remains on track to return to Turin for the second consecutive year.