Reilly Opelka reached his second ATP Tour semifinal on clay at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. US Men’s Clay Court Championships in Houston with a 6-3 7-5 win over Dutch qualifier Gijs Brouwer.
Opelka has extended his winning streak to four consecutive sets after dropping the first set against his compatriot Mitchell Krueger.
The World Number 18 player converted his only break point in the fourth game to win the first set 6-3.
Brower went up a break in the fourth game to take a 3-1 lead. Opelka broke straight back in the fifth game to draw level to 3-3. The US player earned his second break in the 11th game to close out the second set 7-5.
Opelka set up a semifinal clash against Nick Kyrgios, who advanced before the start of play, as Michael Mmoh withdrew from the match with a right adductor strain.
Opelka beat Kyrgios 4-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 in their only previous head-to-head match at last year’s Masters 1000 tournament in Toronto en route to reaching the final where he finished runner-up to Danil Medvedev.
Kyrgios has reached his first semifinal since August 2019, when he claimed the Washington title. Opelka has reached his fourth semifinal of the semifinal of the 2022 season following Sydney, Dallas and Delray Beach.
“I am excited to be in the semifinal against Reilly. Someone, who has been playing extremely good for the last couple of years. I am just excited to go out there again in front of the Houston crowd. The key is going to be serving well. We will see. It might come down to a couple of points”, said Kyrgios.
Christian Garin converted his fifth match point to beat this year’s Indian Wells champion Taylor Fritz 6-2 6-7 (5-7) 6-3. Garin broke twice in the third and eighth games to win the first set 6-2.
Fritz came back from a break down twice in the second set before winning the tie-break 7-5. Garin raced out to a 5-0 lead in the third set. Fritz pulled one break back in the seventh game before saving three match points to claw his way back to 3-5. Garin saved three break points before serving out on his second opportunity in the ninth game.
Garin will face John Isner, who beat Frances Tiafoe 6-4 3-6 6-2 to reach his second ATP Tour semifinal of the 2022 season. Isner converted two of his 10 break points.
Isner earned his first break on his third opportunity in the 10th game to win the first set 6-4. Tiafoe broke in the third game of the second set and saved five break points to hold serve for 3-1. Tiafoe earned his second break in the seventh game and served out the second set on his third set point. Isner earned an early break in the second game of the third set and did not face a break point in his next service games to close out the match in the ninth game.