Tiafoe saves 2 MPs, stuns Rune to reach Cincinnati final

pa href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/frances-tiafoe/td51/overview'Frances Tiafoe/a reached his first ATP Masters 1000 final in dramatic fashion on Sunday at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/cincinnati/422/overview'Cincinnati Open/a./p

pThe American rallied from a 2-5 deficit in the third set of his semi-final against a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/holger-rune/r0dg/overview'Holger Rune/a and saved two match points on serve at 4-5 before rallying past the 15th seed 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(4). Tiafoe will face a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/jannik-sinner/s0ag/overview'Jannik Sinner/a, the No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Rankings, on Monday for the trophy./p

pldquo;Crazy, crazy. That last set was nuts,rdquo; Tiafoe said in his on-court interview. ldquo;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.rdquo;/p

blockquote class="twitter-tweet"

p lang="en" dir="ltr"???? The dream is still alive ????a href="https://twitter.com/FTiafoe?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@FTiafoe/a takes out Rune with a 4-6 6-1 7-6 win to face Sinner in the a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CincyTennis?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#CincyTennis/a final!a href="https://twitter.com/CincyTennis?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@CincyTennis/a a href="https://t.co/v1Ip4lREMk"pic.twitter.com/v1Ip4lREMk/a/p

mdash; ATP Tour (@atptour) a href="https://twitter.com/atptour/status/1825375323627671862?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"August 19, 2024/a/blockquote

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pTiafoe began the week with a 19-18 record on the season. But he has found form in a big way under the tutelage of new coach a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/david-witt/w177/overview'David Witt/a, becoming the first American to reach the Cincinnati final since a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/john-isner/i186/overview'John Isner/a in 2013./p

pWith 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 mdash; a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/taylor-fritz/fb98/overview'Taylor Fritz/a, a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/sebastian-korda/k0ah/overview'Sebastian Korda/a, a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/tommy-paul/pl56/overview'Tommy Paul/a, a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/ben-shelton/s0s1/overview'Ben Shelton/a and Tiafoe mdash; inside the Top 20 for the first time since the week of 24 February 1997./p

p/p

pThe fansrsquo; favourite was just millimetres from losing. On the first match point he faced at 4-5, Tiafoe hit a forehand that clipped the top of the net and just popped over to stave off elimination. Rune had another opportunity to close out the match, but missed a backhand return./p

pldquo;At 5-3 I played a really tough game, made returns. The luck goes on your side sometimes. Those net cords made a huge, huge difference,rdquo; Tiafoe said. ldquo;Saved one of my match points like that. But in the breaker I came up with some good shots, man. I played well, hit some good serves early, didnrsquo;t serve great at the end. But I battled, I battled and he got a little tight. One thing led to another and here we are.rdquo;/p

pnbsp;/p

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pFrom there, momentum was firmly in the Americanrsquo;s corner. Rune has one of the best backhands in the world, but Tiafoe was willing to trade blows off that side and often came out better in those rallies. /p

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pThe three-time ATP Tour titlist hit a sensational curling backhand passing shot crosscourt to take a 6/3 lead in the final-set tie-break and was able to seal his victory after two hours and nine minutes./p

pTiafoe hit 13 aces and saved four of the six break points he faced according to Infosys ATP Stats. The key was second-serve success mdash; the unseeded American won 61 per cent of those points and Rune only managed to capture 46 per cent of them./p

pSinner leads Tiafoe 3-1 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series and this will be their first match of the season. They most recently clashed last year in Vienna, where the Italian won 6-3, 6-4. With that in mind, the American said that the top seed is the favourite, but he is excited for the opportunity to battle in front of the Cincinnati fans./p

pldquo;Absolutely, for sure he is, right? Hersquo;s lost like [five] matches all year? Hersquo;s the favourite in every match he plays, no question about it,rdquo; Tiafoe said. ldquo;Yoursquo;ve got to tip your hat to a guy like him.rdquo;/p

p[NEWSLETTER FORM]/p