Frances Tiafoe battled past Egor Gerasimov 7-6 (7-5) 5-7 7-5 after 2 hours and 35 minutes in a hard-fought match at the Astana Open in Nur Sultan. The US player has reached his first ATP Tour semifinal since the 2018 Estoril Open.
Tiafoe has improved his seasonal record to 9-10 this record. The first set went on serve with no breaks of serve en route to the tie-break. Gerasimov got two mini-breaks to take a 4-3 lead. Tiafoe won four of the next five points to win the tie-break 7-5.
Gerasimov converted his fourth break point at deuce in the first game of the second set. Tiafoe rallied from 30-40 down to break back at deuce in the 10th game for 5-5. Gerasimov broke at love in the 11th game and served out the second set 7-5 after saving a break point at deuce.
Both players traded breaks in the seventh and eighth games. Tiafoe earned a break in the 12th game to win the third set. The US player, who won the ATP title in Parma earlier this year, set up a semifinal match against John Millman, who fended off two match points at 3-5 and came back from 0-5 down in the tie-break of the the third set to beat Tommy Paul 6-7 (5-7) 6-4 7-6 (7-4) after 2 hours and 51 minutes. Millman earned the decisive break, when Paul hit a double fault at 5-3 40-30 and a forehand long at deuce in the third set.
