Taylor Fritz exploded his own path in the semifinals of the National Bank Open proposed by Rogers.
The second seed from the United States ranked 6th in 6-3, 7-6 (4) at Sobeys Stadium on Tuesday.
Fritz finished the game with 20 AAs and will next face the quarterfinals champion between US No. 4 Ben Shelton and Australia No. 9 Alex de Minaur.
Other semifinals on Wednesday will see Germany’s top seed Alexander Zverev (2017 Montreal title champion) compete in Russia’s No. 11 Karen Khachanov.
The championship showdown for the Canadian Men’s Tennis Championship was held Thursday on the University of York campus at Northwestern University.
Fritz won the first game with three aces on the central court in hazy and breeze conditions. He then broke Rublev to secure the first eight points of the game.
The 27-year-old finished fourth in the ATP Tour rankings and lost to last year’s U.S. Open finals to become world No. 1 Jannik Sinner, who also opened two ACEs 4-1 before he could get the game.
Looking for his 11th ATP Tour victory – Second Masters 1000 Champion – Fritz tied for the second set 4-4, but the Russians returned to the next game to stay alive.
However, Fritz will not be denied in the tiebreak and hammered his 20th ace to end the game.
Santa Fe, California product lost to world No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz in the Wimbledon semifinals, who skipped the game with many top players including Sinner, No. 5 Jack Draper and No. 6 Novak Djokovic, all skipped the event and expanded to two weeks in 2025.
Fritz won two wins on the grass in 2025, and ahead of the summer’s match, Fritz won twice in 16 rounds. He also fell on sinners in the U.S. Open final last year.
Rublev came to Toronto to 11th after losing to Australia’s Alexei Popyrin in last year’s final. The 27-year-old from Moscow won the fourth round of the Wimbledon and the French Open. Popring lost to Zverev in the quarter on Monday night.
Fritz improved to 6-4 in his career against Rublev, who played Clay’s last meeting in the Madrid semifinal about 15 months ago.
