Matching the energy of a lively evening crowd, the 22-year-old Shelton dictated play with his booming forehand and produced high-quality shotmaking to book his semi-final spot at the ATP 500.<\/p>\n
“We know tennis is a long journey. We\u2019re going to play each other a bunch of times. Especially, we\u2019ve already played on the hard courts, we\u2019ve already played twice at the US Open<\/a>, and he beat me the most recent time. It’s tough not to cheer for a guy like that,\u201d Shelton said.<\/p>\n Shelton, who by reaching the quarters already secured his rise to a career-high No. 7 in Monday\u2019s PIF ATP Rankings, is into his 11th tour-level semi-final. He reached the last four in Washington last year and by matching that feat, Shelton is the third American to reach the Washington semi-finals in consecutive years this century, joining Andre Agassi<\/a> (2001-04) and Steve Johnson<\/a> (2015-16).<\/p>\n The lefty was broken to love at 5-5 in the first set, allowing Tiafoe to serve for the opener, yet Shelton quickly regrouped and broke back to force a tie-break. Shelton continued his trend of seeking forehands in the first-set tiebreak, during which he also hammered a 144 mph ace. In the second set, Shelton survived a lengthy, five-deuce game at 3-3 to break Tiafoe and deflate the sixth\u2019s seeds hopes of advancing.<\/p>\n By avenging last year\u2019s US Open<\/a> five-set loss to Tiafoe, Shelton improved to 3-1 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with the 27-year-old. Shelton and Tiafoe partnered in Washington, D.C. doubles but lost in the first round. <\/p>\n Three wins shy of 100 tour-level career victories, Shelton will next meet 12th seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"It](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1753528627_177_it-all-adds-up-banner.jpg\"\/)
<\/a><\/p>\n