DELRAY BEACH, February 17, 2024
All four semi-finalists at the Delray Beach Open are US-Americans for the first time in the 32-year history of the tournament, and only the fourth time this century at any ATP Tour event.
Top seed and defending champion Taylor Fritz, who is based in Miami, defeated Australian Rinky Hijikata 6-3, 6-3 in the stage of the last eight on Friday. The World No. 9 didn’t face a break point and capitalized on three of his own five break-point chances to advance in one hour and 14 minutes.
Title defense intact 〽️@taylor_fritz97 defeats Hijikata to move into his 27th career semifinal!@delraybeachopen pic.twitter.com/OYwmZSAyne
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) February 17, 2024
“It’s always a great feeling to just be so into the serve rhythm,” said Fritz after reaching his first semi-final since Washington, D.C. last year. “The quality of the serves I was hitting was also good, so that’s an added bonus to a high percentage.”
Fritz will next take on fellow California native Marcos Giron, who dispatched local wild card entry Patrick Kypson 6-4, 6-4 to earn his second consecutive semi-final appearance, having finished runner-up at the Dallas Open last week. Fritz leads their head-to-head series 3-1, with their last three matches going three sets.
Tiafoe to face Paul
In the bottom half of the draw, Frances Tiafoe defeated Italian lucky loser Flavio Cobolli 6-4, 6-2. The No. 2 seed, who claimed the 2018 Delray Beach Open title on his debut at the event, won 61 per cent of the total points played to secure victory in one hour and eight minutes.
Finding his form 💪@ftiafoe plays some inspired tennis to power past Cobolli and find himself back in the @delraybeachopen semifinals! pic.twitter.com/9VCqIbtHpF
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) February 16, 2024
“Overall, I thought I played well. I thought I served much better today,” Tiafoe said. “He’s played a lot of matches going through qualies, so I definitely wanted to get on him early and make it tough for him. I’m really happy with my performance today and I’m excited for tomorrow.”
The 26-year-old will next face third seed Tommy Paul, who leads their head-to-head record 2-1. Paul, last week’s Dallas Open champion, beat Jordan Thompson of Australia 6-4, 6-3 in one hour and 32 minutes.
Guaranteed all-US-American final
It will be the first all-US-American title match at the Delray Beach Open since 2016 and the first in an ATP final anywhere since Fritz defeated Tiafoe at 2022 Tokyo, Japan.
