Tiafoe sets All-American Semi final meeting with Fritz as Dimitrov Retires

Frances Tiafoe reached his second major semi-final on Tuesday at the US Open, defeating Grigor Dimitrov 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-3, 4-1 after the Bulgarian was forced to retire.

Dimitrov appeared to have a leg problem as his movement and baseline firepower rapidly declined during the final moments of the eighth game in the third set. At the conclusion of the third set, the Bulgarian contacted the physiotherapist and left the court to receive treatment.

Dimitrov made every effort to proceed, but he was obviously impeded. Before the ninth seed’s injury, he retired after three hours and four minutes into an exciting quarterfinal match.

“Obviously, it’s not the way I want to get through. But obviously happy to get through,” said Tiafoe, who shared a warm embrace with Dimitrov following the match. “Another semi-final Tiafoe produced an inspired performance filled with electric shotmaking that brought alive the home crowd inside Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Throughout the game, Tiafoe, who finished with 31 net points, played an all-court style that was mainly unpredictable. He frequently adopted an aggressive return position and searched for early openings to advance ahead.

“It was a really, really high-level match. I liked where I was at in the third regardless. But obviously, I didn’t want it to end like that,” said Tiafoe Incredible.”

Next up for Tiafoe is an all-American men’s major semifinal matchup with Taylor Fritz, who he defeated at the 2005 US Open (Andre Agassi). In their Lexus ATP Head2Head series, Fritz leads 6-1, and the 20th seed will be looking to snap his six-match losing streak. In 2016, Tiafoe prevailed in their first encounter in Indian Wells.