Toronto – Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton won the quarterfinals of the National Bank Open, setting up their first National Semi-finals in the ATP Masters 1000 Championship in 15 years.
Fritz, the second seed, beat No. 6 seed Andrey Rublev 6-3, 7-6 (4). He hit 20 A, including the end of the game.
“It’s clean,” Fritz said of his performance. “I’m happy with everything.”
Shelton was the fourth seed and then beat Australia's 9th place Alex de Minaur 6-3, 6-4. The 22-year-old made his first semi-final in the ATP Masters.
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The showdown between Fritz and Shelton will be the two Americans meeting in the ATP Masters in the 1000 semifinals since Andy Roddick defeated Mardy Fish in Cincinnati in 2010.
Fritz won the only meeting in Wells, India in 2023.
“He's a big game player,” Sheldon said. “Recently, he's been carrying flags for the United States in big games. His clutch, it works very well. We're good friends.
“It’s a game that I’m really excited about.”
Roddick was the last player to win the Grand Slam when he won the U.S. Open in 2003.
“There is no doubt that one of us will get it at some point,” said Sheldon, No. 7. “Who knows who that is? You just have to wait and see… American tennis is in a very good place.”
Other semifinals on Wednesday will be held in the 2017 Montreal title to win Germany's highest seed Alexander Zverev and scored Russia's 11th place Karen Khachanov. The final is Thursday.
Fritz opened fire in hazy and breeze conditions and won the first game with three aces. He then broke Rublev to secure the first eight points of the game.
The 27-year-old American ranked fourth in the ATP Tour rankings, losing to Jannik Sinner in the U.S. Open final last year, who opened two ACEs 4-1 and then hit the game again.
Looking for his 11th ATP Tour champion – Second Masters 1000 champion – Fritz tied for the second set 4-4, but the Russian returned to support to stay active in the next game and rose 6-5 before Fritz forced a final.
Fritz lost to second-placed Carlos Alcaraz in the Wimbledon semifinals, who joined a number of top players including Sinners, No. 5 Jack Draper and No. 6 Novak Djokovic, all of which skipped the hard game and expanded to two weeks in 2025.
Rublev lost to Australia's Alexei Popyrin in last year's final, when the event was held in Montreal. The 27-year-old from Moscow won the fourth round of the Wimbledon and the French Open.