Frances Tiafoe advanced to his maiden tour-level semi-final on grass Friday when he moved past Italian Lorenzo Musetti 6-7(6), 7-6(4), 6-2 at the BOSS OPEN in Stuttgart.
In an entertaining clash at the ATP 250, Tiafoe recovered from squandering three set points in the first set, holding his nerve in the second set before racing clear in the decider. The American was aggressive off short balls throughout the two-hour, 42-minute clash, firing 45 winners to level his ATP Head2Head series against the 21-year-old at 2-2.
"He is obviously a very good player," Tiafoe said. "We have always had tough battles, first time on grass. He could have made it a little more straight forward for me but it is good to get through."
With his 25th win of the season, Tiafoe set a semi-final meeting against Hungarian qualifier Marton Fucsovics. The third seed Tiafoe is chasing his third tour-level title and second of the season this week, having triumphed on clay in Houston in April.
Tiafoe is making his debut in Stuttgart, with his best result on grass prior to this week runs to the quarter-finals at The Queen's Club in 2018 and 2021. The 25-year-old is up one place to No. 11 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings and will break the Top 10 for the first time if he wins the trophy in Germany.
In the second quarter-final of the day, Fucsovics earned his third Top 10 win when he defeated World No. 8 Taylor Fritz 6-4, 7-5.
The 31-year-old, who is chasing his second tour-level title this week (Geneva 2018), won 84 per cent (36/43) of his first-serve points to advance after one hour and 42 minutes. Into his fourth tour-level semi-final and first since Rotterdam in 2021, Fucsovics will look to keep his run going against Tiafoe on Saturday.
In other action, Hubert Hurkacz defeated Christopher O’Connell 6-4, 6-4 to reach his second tour-level semi-final of the season. The fourth seed, who triumphed in Marseille in February, has now advanced to three semi-finals on the surface. The Pole lost against Matteo Berrettini in the 2021 Wimbledon semi-finals and Daniil Medvedev in last year's Halle final.
He will next play Jan-Lennard Struff after the German defeated Frenchman Richard Gasquet 6-4, 7-5.
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