Two Wins In One Day: Tiafoe Into Houston SFs

American Frances Tiafoe completed double duty Saturday to reach the Houston semi-finals.

Two-and-a-half hours after his second-round 6-2, 6-4 victory against Steve Johnson, the top-seeded Tiafoe returned to court and ousted Australian Jason Kubler 6-4, 6-4 in the quarter-finals at the Fayez Sarofim & Co U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship.

“I haven’t played two matches in one day in a long time,” Tiafoe said. “I thought it was unbelievable how I was able to come out here and play so well.

“The ball was going much [faster], it was much warmer [than earlier], I was sweating a lot more. Obviously a totally different player. [Jason] has been playing well, he’s played a lot lately, so I knew he was going to come after me. It was a good match.”

The World No. 15 delivered a strong serving performance, winning 28 of 31 points off his first delivery to down sixth seed Kubler in one hour, 28 minutes. Tiafoe will next meet Houston-born Gijs Brouwer in the last four.

In his first tour-level event as the top seed, Tiafoe is eyeing his second title (Delray Beach, 2018). Should the 25-year-old win the ATP 250 crown, he would rise to a career-high No. 11 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings.

Brouwer, 27, held a 6-4, 5-6 lead over John Isner before play was suspended Thursday, but the Dutchman put the finishing touches on Saturday to down the fourth seed 6-4, 7-6(4). Brouwer then continued his strong run by upsetting fifth seed J.J. Wolf 6-3, 6-4 to advance to his first tour-level semi-final. Should the lefty reach the Houston final, he would crack the Top 100 of the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings for the first time.

"The first one was mentally tiring a little bit because it took a couple days and even though it rained a lot you've got to stay sharp the whole day," Brouwer said. "The second match I just played really well, so I'm very happy with the way I played against J.J. I had a good tactic and it worked and it was just a great match."

In the other semi-final, Argentina Tomas Martin Etcheverry will meet German qualifier Yannick Hanfmann.

Etcheverry battled past 2019 Houston champion Cristian Garin 6-1, 6-7(2), 6-3 to reach his second ATP Tour semi-final of the year. Entering 2023, he had never advanced to a tour-level quarter-final. Etcheverry also ousted Australian Max Purcell 7-6(5), 6-1 in the second round.

Hanfmann won a clash of qualifiers against Czech Tomas Machac 6-1, 6-2. The German will try to advance to his third ATP Tour final, having finished runner-up twice previously (2017 Gstaad, 2020 Kitzbühel). Earlier in the day, he had upset second seed Tommy Paul 7-6(6), 6-2.

After rain cancelled much of play the past three days at the ATP 250, the Houston semi-finals and championship match will be held Sunday.