Saturday’s men’s singles semifinals are quite surprising, featuring four players ranked outside the world’s top 25. Cam Norrie and Grigor Dimitrov will square off in the first semi, in a rematch from earlier this season in Miami. The second semifinal is also a rematch from March of this year, as Nikoloz Basilashvili and Taylor Fritz actually played in back-to-back weeks seven months ago, during the two weeks when this tournament normally takes place.
Also on Saturday, the men’s and women’s doubles championship matches will be contested. The women’s final will start the day at 11:00am local time, while the men’s final will close out play after the singles semifinals are completed.
Cameron Norrie (21) vs. Grigor Dimitrov (23) – Not Before 1:30pm on Stadium 1
What a breakout season this has become for Cam Norrie. The Brit is now 45-20 this year, and has been victorious in his last five semifinals. Since his run to the final of San Diego two weeks ago, Cam has defeated four top 20 players: Shapovalov, Rublev, Bautista Agut, and Schwartzman. Dimitrov also gained crucial momentum in San Diego, advancing to the semis and narrowly going down in defeat to eventual champion Casper Ruud. Prior to that, 2021 had been a poor season for Grigor, as he was only 15-14. Dimitrov’s last two wins this week were his most impressive in a long time. He first came back from a set and two breaks down against top-seeded Medvedev, then survived a third-set tiebreak against Hubert Hurkacz. When Norrie and Dimitrov met at the Miami Masters event in March, Cam prevailed 7-5, 7-5. In the last round, Norrie simply walloped Diego Schwartzman 6-0, 6-2. Based on his current level of play, I like Cam to win his sixth straight semifinal.
Nikoloz Basilashvili (29) vs. Taylor Fritz (31) – Third on Stadium 1
What a comeback Fritz staged on Friday. Down 5-2 in the third and two match points against a red-hot Sascha Zverev, he fought back to eventually prevail in a tiebreak for what was the best and most exciting win of his career. Taylor has now taken out three consecutive top 15 players: Zverev, Sinner, and Berrettini. Basilashvili had compiled an up-and-down year, but when he’s on, he’s been tough to defeat. He’s already claimed two titles this year, in Doha and Munich. It was in Doha where Basilashvili overcame Fritz in the semifinals. A week later, Fritz avenged that loss in Dubai, in a match decided by a third-set tiebreak. Their only other meeting occurred four years ago in Chengdu, when Taylor won as a qualifier ranked 94th in the world. Coming off the emotional high of his huge, thrilling victory on Friday, I expect it will be difficult for the American to recover and be at his best on Saturday. That leaves Nikoloz with an enormous opportunity to reach the biggest final of his career, and he possesses strong groundstrokes which enable him to dictate the outcome.
Other Notable Matches on Saturday:
Su-Wei Hsieh and Elise Mertens (2) vs. Veronika Kudermetova and Elena Rybakina – Hsieh and Mertens are looking for their second title as a team, after prevailing at Wimbledon in July. Kudermetova and Rybakina just began teaming in August, when they reached the semifinals in Canada.
John Peers and Filip Polasek (7) vs. Aslan Karatsev and Andrey Rublev – Peers and Polasek were finalists two weeks ago in San Diego. The Russians have won their last eight matches as a team, dating back to their title run in Qatar this past March.
Saturday’s full Order of Play is here.
