Citi Open: Evans denies Tiafoe to book semi-final against Dimitrov

No 9 seed Daniel Evans has put on a strong performance to reach the last four of the Citi Open by winning against American Frances Tiafoe, the second seed, 6-4, 7-5 at Rock Creek Park Tennis Center in Washington on Saturday night.

Both players were competing in their second match of the day, after rain impacted much of Thursday’s play at the Citi Open. Despite the double duty, it was a high quality match under the lights between Evans and Tiafoe, with each striking 30+ winners and making single digit unforced errors.

It was the second serve that proved the deciding difference, however, with Tiafoe winning less than half the points on his second, while Evans was solid at 76 percent.

The crowd willed Tiafoe on, and he came close to breaking Evans at 5-5 in the second set, but it wasn’t to be, as the Brit powered home to book a semi-final spot against Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, the No 5 seed, next.

Read also

Citi Open: Shevchenko’s run ended by Evans in straight sets

Tennis Majors

Evans beat Frenchman Gregoire Barrere (2-6, 6-0, 6-3) and Russian Alexander Shevchenko (6-4, 6-3) earlier in the tournament, while in the previous rounds of the Washington D.C. tournament, Tiafoe, ranked No 10, defeated Russian Aslan Karatsev (7-6 (5), 7-6 (5)) and Chinese qualifier Juncheng Shang (6-2, 6-3).

Washington ATP500, other quarter-finals results (Rock Creek Park Tennis Center, hard, USD 2,013,940, most recent results first):

• Taylor Fritz (1) beat Jordan Thompson: 6-3, 6-3
• Tallon Griekspoor (12) beat J.J. Wolf (16): 7-5, 6-4
• Grigor Dimitrov vs. Ugo Humbert (walkover)