Wednesday’s semifinal action in Toronto delivered fireworks as Karen Khachanov and Ben Shelton punched their tickets to the National Bank Open final.
In the first match of the day, Khachanov picked up a massive win over world No. 3 Alexander Zverev en route to just the second Masters 1000 final appearance of his career.
In the first set, Khachanov, who entered the tournament as the No. 11 seed, managed to jump out to an early lead against Zverev, securing a break en route to a 6-3 first-set win.
In the second, Zverev began to get a feel for the heavy groundstrokes of Khachanov, threatening to break midway through the set as Khachanov held to push the score to three games all.
After a break, the world No. 3 was able to consolidate and hold, capturing the second set 6-4.
With the match tied up at one set apiece, the two went blow for blow, with neither able to gain an edge despite some back-and-forth play.
In the tiebreak, Khachanov was able to come up big when he needed it most, picking up his first win against Zverev since 2019.
After the match, Khachanov spoke about the win during his on-court interview with TennisTV, saying:
“I had to dig deep and try my best, definitely lift up the level when it had to be, and I think it was very demanding, very physical, very mental match. So I’m extremely happy to finally let’s say beat him up after a couple of years losing easy ones, let’s say, so today it was a really close one … and I’m thankful that things went on my side in the end.”
Khachanov now advances to the second Masters 1000 final of his career, after previously winning the Rolex Paris Masters in 2018.
Ben Shelton defeats Taylor Fritz to Reach First Career Masters 1000 Final
In the second semifinal showdown of the day, Ben Shelton defeated Taylor Fritz to advance to his first career Masters 1000 final.
In the first set, the two Americans went blow for blow until the ninth game, when Shelton secured a crucial break. Despite the bright lights of just his second career Masters 1000 semifinal, Shelton went on to win the set 6-4, putting the pressure on the world No. 4.
With a record of 25-1 in matches where he’s taken a one-set lead, Shelton was able to ride the momentum of the first set into an early break in the second, coasting to a 6-3 win behind consistent play in service games.
Throughout the match, Shelton’s serve appeared to be dialed in, while on the flip side, Fritz struggled throughout his service games, winning just 67% of first serve points and 39% of second serve points.
With his win, Shelton now reaches a new career-high of No. 7 in the world following back-to-back wins over top-10 players for the first time in his career.
Shelton reflected on the win during his TennisTV on-court interview:
“There’s a lot of things to be proud about, and yeah, beating top-10 guys back-to-back is huge for me.”
Ben Shelton vs. Karen Khachanov Head-to-Head & Preview
Throughout their careers, Ben Shelton and Karen Khachanov have faced off just once, at this year’s Indian Wells Masters 1000 in California, where Shelton was able to secure a straight-set win 6-3, 7-5 in the Round of 32.
Shelton then went on to defeat Brandon Nakashima in the Round of 16 before ultimately falling to Jack Draper in the quarterfinals.
Since then, however, Khachanov notably had a deep quarterfinal run at Wimbledon, along with a semifinal run at the ATP 500 in Halle.
Play is set to begin tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. ET (4:30 p.m. PT) on Center Court.
With both players in-form, it’ll be interesting to see how tomorrow’s final plays out.
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