The China Mail - Fritz downs Murray on way to Washington semis, Evans topples Tiafoe

Fritz was not the only player pulling double duty at the combined ATP and WTA hardcourt tennis tournament, after rain brought play to a premature end on Thursday.

Britain's Daniel Evans defeated Alexander Shevchenko 6-4, 6-3 then came back to upset second-seeded hometown hero Frances Tiafoe 6-4, 7-5.

Tiafoe had made short work of his third-round opponent, dispatching Chinese teenager Shang Juncheng 6-2, 6-3.

But ninth-seeded Evans gained an early break in each set and turned back the American's bid to rally in the second, breaking Tiafoe for a 6-5 lead and saving a break point as he served out the match in the next game.

Evans next faces Bulgarian fifth-seed Grigor Dimitrov, who got some unexpected rest when France's Ugo Humbert withdrew from their quarter-final with a leg injury.

Fritz next faces Tallon Griekspoor, who finished off a rain-disrupted three-set victory over France's Gael Monfils before beating American J.J. Wolf 7-5, 6-4 in the quarter-finals.

Fritz, ranked ninth in the world, looked anything but fatigued as he raced past Thompson 6-3, 6-3 in one hour and 17 minutes.

Thompson had earlier beaten Wimbledon quarter-finalist Christopher Eubanks 6-2, 6-2, while Fritz had needed three hours to subdue the 44th-ranked Murray.

Murray, showing his formidable range of skills at age 36, won his first break chance of the match with a forehand cross-court drop volley winner on the line, breaking Fritz and pulling level at 5-5 on the way to a first set tie-break.

Murray smashed a forehand winner for a 3-1 lead, took a quick break to replace a shattered shoe, then took two points off Fritz's serve as he pocketed the set.

Fritz battled back to take the second and they fought to 4-4 in the third before Murray swatted a backhand wide to surrender a break.

Down 0-40 in the 10th game, Fritz saved three break points. Murray denied him on two match points before Fritz blasted a forehand winner on his third chance.

- 'Insanely high level' -

"I think that the match with Andy earlier was insanely high level," Fritz said. "I thought he played really well. I thought he served really well.

"It was a war," he added. "With how these balls are, they're so slow, dead, it's really tough to finish points. You're going to inevitably have these really long, physical rallies.

"I did a great job to win that. And then I did a really good job to come back and play how I played in that last match.

"I feel like my body probably couldn't have handled another battle like I had with Andy," Fritz added.

In women's action, top seed Jessica Pegula rallied past Wimbledon semi-finalist Elina Svitolina 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 to book a semi-final showdown with Greek fourth seed Maria Sakkari.

Sakkari had to win twice on Friday, beating Canadian Leylah Fernandez 7-5, 6-2 before dispatching seventh-seeded American Madison Keys 6-3, 6-3 in the quarter-finals.

Third-seeded American Coco Gauff cruised past sixth-seeded Swiss Belinda Bencic 6-1, 6-2 to line up a semi-final against defending champion Liudmila Samsonova, a 6-4, 6-2 winner over Ukraine's Marta Kostyuk.

Gauff, in contrast, was never troubled by reigning Olympic champion Bencic, converting six of her nine break chances.

"I put a lot of hours in after Wimbledon and I was eager to bounce back," said Gauff, who crashed out in the first round at the All England Club.

"The serve has improved, the return has improved and I think I'm dictating a lot of points, which against Belinda is not an easy thing to do."

A.Kwok--ThChM