In Montreal, three of the top five players in the world remain, including World Number One Simona Halep. In Toronto, there are 32 Masters 1,000 titles represented, all owned by one man: World Number One Rafael Nadal.
Sloane Stephens vs. Elina Svitolina
A year ago, Svitolina was the champion at this event, her fifth title in a breakout year. A year ago, Sloane Stephens arrived at this event ranked 934th in the world, having missed nearly a year of tennis due to injury. But this is the event that started Stephens’ resurgence, as she made the semis 52 weeks ago. Now she’s ranked three in the world, she won a Major, and she made the final of another Major. For Svitolina, 2018 has been a bit too similar to 2017. She has three titles on the year, but continues to underperform at the Majors. This season she’s just 6-3 at Grand Slam events. They’ve split their two previous matches, though those were both in 2014 so they likely won’t mean much here. This is a hard one to call, but I give the slight edge to Sloane, who has advanced to this semifinal more easily than Svitolina. The winner will face either Simona Halep or Ashleigh Barty in the final tomorrow.
Kevin Anderson vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas
What a week for the 19-year-old Greek. Tsitsipas is the first teenager to defeat three consecutive top 10 players since Rafael Nadal. That’s an impressive stat. But after emotional wins over Dominic Thiem, Novak Djokovic, and Sascha Zverev, what can Stefanos possibly have left? On Saturday, he’ll play a South African who has become one of the most consistent players on tour. Previously known for choking in big moments, and a streak of ten straight loss in Masters 1,000 quarterfinals, Anderson is now into his second semifinal out of the last three Masters events. And certainly his run at Wimbledon put his old reputation to rest. Kevin has picked up momentum as the week has progressed, losing only four games yesterday to Grigor Dimitrov in the quarters. The only previous meeting between Anderson and Tsitsipas took place just a few months ago, with Stefanos prevailing in a tight three setter on the clay of Estoril. The hart court should definitely favor Anderson, as should the amount of matches Tsitsipas has played over the past two weeks: he made the semis as well last week in DC. I like Anderson’s chances to reach his first Masters 1,000 final, where he’d meet the winner of Rafael Nadal against Karen Khachanov on Sunday.
