Frances Tiafoe defeated 10th-seeded Cameron Norrie 6-4, 6-4 Wednesday to reach the semifinals of the BNP Paribas Open.

The 14th-seeded American ended the 2021 champion’s eight-match winning streak to earn his first semi berth in a Masters 1000 tournament.

Tiafoe hit 22 winners and had just nine unforced errors. He punctuated the victory, which was briefly interrupted by rain, by serving a love game.

Tiafoe hasn’t dropped a set in four matches during the tournament. Next, he’ll play No. 5 Daniil Medvedev, who beat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-3, 7-5.

Medvedev won his 18th consecutive match and improved to 23-2 this year. He hurt his right ankle in a three-set win over Alexander Zverev a day earlier.

But his woes weren’t over. He fell on the court and opened a cut on his thumb in the sixth game of the second set. The cut was bandaged during a medical timeout.

Medvedev broke Davidovich Fokina at love to go up 6-5 before serving out the victory. Medvedev won 12 of the last 14 points.

On the women’s side, No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka won the final seven games of the match in defeating sixth-seeded Coco Gauff 6-4, 6-0 in the quarterfinals.

No. 7 Maria Sakkari outlasted 15th-seeded Petra Kvitova 4-6, 7-5, 6-1. Sabalenka improved to 16-1 this year, including her run to the Australian Open title.

SOURCE: BAHRAIN NEWS AGENCY