![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/610X150-Slide_PRO-PLAYER7-13-26.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nTiafoe won 27 of 35 trips to net and more than doubled Musetti\u2019s winner total (36 to 17) in beating the Italian for the fourth time in seven meetings.<\/p>\n
A Queen City joy ride continues for Tiafoe, who scored his third Top 20 win of the tournament after victories over No. 12 Learner Tien in the third round and No. 4 Felix Auger-Aliassime in the round of 16.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 28-year-old Tiafoe advanced to his third ATP Masters 1000 semifinal\u2014and first since he contested the 2024 Cincinnati final. All this from the American who had a cyst removed from his racquet hand earlier this month, briefly leaving his Cincinnati status in doubt.<\/p>\n
The dynamic Tiafoe will face compatriot Brandon Nakashima in tomorrow night\u2019s all-American semifinal of friendly foes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Earlier, Nakashima pumped 13 aces and saved four of six break points toppling Taylor Fritz 7-6(9), 4-6, 6-3 to charge into his third straight semifinal. Montreal finalist Nakashima is the first American man to reach semifinals in Canada and Cincinnati in the same season since Mardy Fish in 2011.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 17th-seeded Tiafoe has won six of seven meetings vs. Nakashima.<\/p>\n
The Italian swung a big serve wide to go up 2-1 in the tiebreaker vs. Tiafoe tonight.<\/p>\n
Then Tiafoe turned it up, completely tearing through six points in a row.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Pouncing on a shallow second serve, Tiafoe crushed his return and hit a high forehand volley for 4-2, flicked a fine forehand return crosscourt then fired his fourth ace out wide for a fistful of set point.<\/p>\n
An assertive Tiafoe won 13 of 16 trips to net and hit 10 more winners\u201418 to 8\u2014in the 75-minute opener.<\/p>\n
Combine the fast feet, soft hands and mischievous minds for absurd angles both men possess and you get a pulsating all-court exchange we saw in the third game. Musetti ran down a Tiafoe dropper, angled off a reply and extended the point only to see the American take a backhand drive volley down the line. That rousing sequence helped Tiafoe break for a 2-1 second-set lead.<\/p>\n
Swiping a forehand swing volley, Tiafoe confirmed the break for 3-1.<\/p>\n
The Tiafoe forehand is predicated on an elaborate backswing, but the Foe forehand was firing as he sustained the break.<\/p>\n
Serving for the semifinal at 5-4, a jittery Tiafoe opened the game with a double fault. Tiafoe came back to earn a match point, but missed his two-hander. A lunging Musetti extended a point on a ball behind him earning break point when Tiafoe shoveled a half volley into net. Drawing a netted response, Musetti broke back with a shout.<\/p>\n
Shaking off that setback, Tiafoe came right back with a smash to set up a clever angled drop volley winner for break point. Tiafoe induced an errant backhand to break again for 6-5.<\/p>\n
Attacking with intent, Tiafoe carved a brilliant backhand drop volley for three more match points.<\/p>\n
A dashing Musetti darted a forehand pass to save a second match point then drove a deep return to save a third match point.<\/p>\n
On match point No. 4, Tiafoe sent a slice serve down the T to close a 7-6, 7-5 victory to surge into the Cincinnati semifinals for the second time in the last three years.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"August Frances Tiafoe reaches his second Cincinnati SF in the last three years. Richard PagliaroAugust 21, 20263 minute…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":863879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-863878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=863878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/863879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}