Like last year at the Canadian Open in which Pablo Carreno Busta was crowned as champion, a new interesting winner will be crowned this weekend at the National Bank Open and with the conclusion incoming, TennisUpToDate has the schedule and preview for ATP semi-finals day.

Carlos Alcaraz and Daniil Medvedev were the top two seeds who fell by the wayside on Friday night and only four players remain.

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Semi-Final One sees Giant Killer Davidovich-Fokina takes on De Minaur destructor 

Two players who have produced spell binding displays all week are Alejandro Davidovich-Fokina and Alex de Minaur who will face off in the first semi-final on Saturday night. The former in particular has been ripping apart big names for fun. Starting off with J.J Wolf who was in some form in Washington, he followed it up with Alexander Zverev then Casper Ruud then a fellow top player this week in Mackenzie McDonald to reach this point.

It was also set last night that he would face potentially Novak Djokovic in the second round of the Cincinnati Open and given his current form, the 23-time Grand Slam champion could be in for a rude awakening.

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But what about his opponent, he produced De Minaur De-struction on Friday night in seeing off Daniil Medvedev in one of the wins of the tournament.

But has battled through some of the toughest names as an unseeded player. The Aussie saw off Cameron Norrie, Gabriel Diallo who was playing in front of his home crowd as well as Taylor Fritz who had won all but one of his matches for a long while.

Like Davidovich Fokina, he now has the chance for the biggest title of his career and both are well deserving of their spot in the latter stages in Toronto.

Head to Head wise, De Minaur has won their only match on hard albeit indoor hard but has lost three more meetings (including qualifiers) barring that including on his favoured grass at Queen's last year.

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Alcaraz-Sinner? Tommy Paul gatecrashes potential semi-final

Many would've seen the draw and the potential for a dream tie between two of the players touted as the next to take the Big Three mantle in Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.

One in which Alcaraz himself has called Sinner his biggest rival, but it wasn't to be with a special display from Tommy Paul seeing him for a second year running disposing his Carlos Alcaraz.

The American who as of late has reached a new career high continues to gatecrash the Taylor Fritz/Frances Tiafoe party as one of the top American stars and in a year which saw him reach a maiden major semi-final and reach World No.14, a maiden Masters and a top 10 berth will be on his mind.

The Boca Raton native in particular will see this as a huge confidence boost ahead of Flushing Meadows at the end of the month. Albeit, he hasn't played anyone massively below his level up until Alcaraz.

Wins over Schwartzman, Cerundolo and Giron were all expected, but he took apart the World Number One and will now have his sights on doing the same to Jannik Sinner who will be favourite for the title due to his status.

Compared to Paul, he has seen off Matteo Berrettini, Andy Murray was a walkover, but he then took down one of the stories of the tournament in Gael Monfils. Can he take down another?

It is locked in at 1-1 between Paul and Sinner in terms of Head to Head, but who reaches the final?

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Saturday, August 12, 2023

Day 6

Center Court Starts At 12:30 Pm

Not Before 2:30 Pm

SF Alejandro Davidovich Fokina VS Alex de Minaur

Not Before 7:30 Pm

SF Tommy Paul VS Jannik Sinner

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