Frances Tiafoe booked a place in her first ATP Tour semifinals in two and a half years at the Astana Open, an ATP 250 tournament in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, on Friday. The 22-year-old American has recorded 9 wins and 10 losses this season with a highly competitive 7-6 (5), 5-7, 7-5 win over Egor Gerasimov of Belarus in two hours and 35 minutes.
Tiafoe last reached a semifinals at ATP Tour level on the way to the Millennium Estoril Open final in May 2018. Earlier this month, Tiafoe won the fifth ATP Challenger Tour trophy of his career at the Internazionali di Tennis Emilia Romagna in Parma (he defeated Caruso).
In a close game, the American put pressure on his opponent’s serve when Gerasimov forced a tie-break in the third set. At the first match point, the 22-year-old reached the semi-finals after a backhand error by his opponent that went beyond the baseline.
Both semi-finals will be played in Nur-Sultan on Saturday
Tiafoe will face Australian John Millman in the semifinals, fourth seed of the tournament who has recovered from his quarterfinal match to reach his first semifinal since October 2019 when he reached the final of the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships (lost to Novak) Djokovic).
Millman managed to save two match points at 3-5 in the third set and rallied from 0/5 in the third set tiebreak to complete the 6-7 (5), 6-4 and 7-6 (5) win against Tommy Paul in two hours and 51 minutes.
On the flip side, young Finn Emil Ruusuvuori is still in a great moment after beating the only local player, Kazak Mikhail Kukushkin, 6-3, 6-1 in 81 minutes. Ruusuvuori had six aces, five double faults, 67% effectiveness on his first serve, and four breaks that converted into eight chances.
While Kukushkin had four aces, a double fault, 65% effectiveness on his first serve, and had no break opportunity. Ruusuvuori meets Adrian Mannarino (No. 3), who defeated the American Mackenzie McDonald in one hour with 6: 1, 6: 4 and in the other semifinals with 40 minutes.
