Tiafoe reaches Maiden Cincinnati final, to face Sinner

Frances Tiafoe reached his first ever ATP Masters 1000 final in some style on Sunday night at the Cincinnati Open.

The 26-year-old American Frances Tiafoe and home favourite defeated Norwegian Holger Rune in three sets on Sunday evening to reach the Cincinnati final.

Tiafoe came back from a 2-5 deficit in the third set of his semi-final against Holger Rune and saved two match points on serve at 4-5 before rallying past the 15th seed 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(4).

“Crazy, crazy. That last set was nuts,” Tiafoe said in his on-court interview. “It got pretty breezy there at the end so we were kind of just playing the percentages. But yeah, I got really lucky there. I had a couple net cords, but I also battled. I competed really hard and put myself in position.”

With his victory, Tiafoe ascended to No. 20 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings. When the new PIF ATP Rankings are released, there will be five Americans — Taylor Fritz, Sebastian Korda, Tommy Paul, Ben Shelton and Tiafoe — inside the Top 20 for the first time since the week of 24 February 1997.

Tiafoe will face Jannik Sinner, the No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Rankings, on Monday for the trophy.

Jannik Sinner came out on top in a three sets battle in the second semi-final to reach the final in Cincinnati.

He defeated German Alexander Zverev and the 2021 Cincinnati champion 7-6(9), 5-7, 7-6(4) in three hours and seven minutes.