Fritz fires past Goffin into Shanghai SFs

Is Taylor Fritz set for a return to the ATP Masters 1000 winners’ circle?

The American on Friday marched into the last four at the Rolex Shanghai Masters with a 6-3, 6-3 triumph against David Goffin. With his 82-minute win, Fritz reached his third hard-court Masters 1000 semi-final, and his first since he lifted his only trophy at that level at the 2022 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells.

“I feel like sometimes it takes a couple of matches to find my routines, to find what feels good and what is working for me,” said Fritz after reaching his fifth Masters 1000 semi-final overall. “I feel like once I get past the first two rounds, I feel very locked in. I’ve come this far already, so I might as well really dial it in and I’m just enjoying being here.”

Cruising by ?@Taylor_Fritz97 takes out Goffin to reach his 5th ATP Masters 1000 SF ?@SH_RolexMasters | #RolexShanghaiMasters pic.twitter.com/dsfDu01IFy

Competing in his first Lexus ATP Head2Head clash against Goffin since 2021, Fritz overpowered the Belgian to improve to 49-19 for the season. The 26-year-old’s high-quality groundstrokes off both wings helped him convert three of seven break points he earned, according to Infosys ATP Stats, and he rarely looked likely to loosen his grip of the quarter-final encounter.

“I think I’ve been serving pretty well all week, especially in the match against Holger [Rune] and today,” said Fritz, who won 70 per cent (14/20) of points behind his second delivery in his quarter-final win. “I knew I had to. I knew serves that might work well against somebody else might not necessarily work against Goffin.

“The one thing I remembered about playing him is that he’s an incredible returner, and serves I’m not used to seeing come back, they come back. So I really had to be on it with my serve and extra aggressive with second serves.”

By becoming just the second American semi-finalist in Shanghai tournament history (after Sebastian Korda in 2023), Fritz has strengthened his chances of qualifying for the Nitto ATP Finals for the second time. The eight-time ATP Tour champion is fifth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin, but he would leap above Daniil Medvedev into fourth if he wins the title in China.

Standing in Fritz’s way in the semi-finals will be record-four-time Shanghai titlist Novak Djokovic or #NextGenATP Czech Jakub Mensik. The pair will contest their quarter-final in Friday’s night session inside Qizhong Forest Sports City Arena.

Despite his quarter-final defeat, the former World No. 7 Goffin can reflect on a productive run in Shanghai, where he upset seeded players Lorenzo Musetti and Alexander Zverev before falling to Fritz. The Belgian has risen 13 spots to No. 13 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings as a result of reaching his second quarter-final at the Chinese Masters 1000.

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