Shelton beats Tiafoe, Muchova beats Kirsty to reach semifinals

New York20-year-old Ben Shelton of the United States made history at Flushing Meadows by defeating his countryman Frances Tiafoe in an upset quarterfinal. Shelton needs just one more win to reach his maiden Grand Slam final after beating Tiafoe 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(7), 6-2.

With Tuesday night’s win, the 20-year-old became the youngest American to reach the US Open semifinals since Michael Chang in 1992. The heartbreaking loss in the first round of the tournament last year, when he was seeded No. 165 After the tournament, Shelton made an impressive improvement in the ATP Live Rankings to enter the top 20.

However, it won’t be easy for Shelton in the semi-finals as he will face the mighty Novak Djokovic, who is eyeing his fourth US Open title. Djokovic reached his 47th straight major semi-final after his win against Taylor Fritz. surpassed Roger Federer’s mark of 46. In women’s singles, No. 10 seed Czech Karolina Muchova defeated Sorana Kirsti 6-0, 6-3 in the quarterfinals to reach her second hard-court Slam semifinal.

Muchova has now reached the semifinals or better in three of her four major events. She reached the 2020 Australian Open for the first time and played her first major final three months ago at Roland Garros. She will face sixth seeded American Coco Gauff on Thursday for a place in the final. Thursday’s semifinal will be a rematch of the Cincinnati Masters final two weeks ago, where Gauff beat a fatigued Muchova to claim her maiden WTA 1000 title.