Brandon Nakashima defeated fellow American Taylor Fritz to reach just the second ATP Masters 1000 semi-final of his career, at the Cincinnati Open on Friday.

Nakashima emerged as a 7-6 (11-9) 4-6 6-3 victor after two hours and 16 minutes in Ohio, teeing up a last-four meeting with Frances Tiafoe or Lorenzo Musetti. 

The 27th seed took control of the contest by winning a marathon tie-break in the opening set, after neither player gave up a game on their own serve. 

Fritz had the first set point at 7-6 up in that tie-break, but Nakashima won five of the next seven points to get ahead.

Fritz responded in the second, with a single break in game three being enough for the sixth seed to force a decider, and momentum looked to be on his side when he broke again, five games into that set.

However, Nakashima managed back-to-back breaks of his own, paired with two routine holds, and after his booming serve pushed Fritz back on match point, the 25-year-old darted to the net to sink a forehand winner to the left side of the court.

1 - Brandon Nakashima is the first player ranked outside the ATP top-20 to reach the semi-final at both Canadian and Cincinnati Opens in the same season since 1990. Double.#CincyTennis | @CincyTennis @atptour pic.twitter.com/CuiaGuKdf7

— OptaAce (@OptaAce) August 21, 2026

Nakashima's Canada-Cincy double

Having finished as runner-up to Ben Shelton at the Canadian Open last week, Nakashima has maintained that energy in Cincinnati.

He is the first player ranked outside the ATP's top 20 to reach the semi-finals in both Canada and Cincinnati in the same season since the Masters 1000 format was introduced in 1990.

And Nakashima is just the fourth player this century to reach his first two ATP Masters 1000 semi-finals at consecutive events, after Andrey Rublev, Reilly Opelka, Carlos Alcaraz and Musetti.

He was already the first player from outside the top 20 to reach at least the quarter-finals at Washington, Canada and Cincinnati in the same year since Andy Murray in 2006.

And Nakashima has had to do things the hard way, also beating Daniil Medvedev in the third round after saving three match points. It is the first time in his career that he has managed multiple top-10 victories at a single ATP Tour event.