Dallas Open Quarter-Finals Round-up | Fritz, Shelton and Shapovalov recover from one-set deficits as Cilic ends British hopes

The top Americans are leading the charge in the Dallas Open, with the number one seed Taylor Fritz coming through a remarkably tight matchup against Sebastian Korda, coming out on top 6-7(2), 6-4, 7-6(5).

Fritz has been held back by injuries this year, unable to unleash his full potential as he looks to climb back up into the top five in the world. He was facing an opponent that he had enjoyed a positive record over, but that meant nothing if he could add more misery to Korda in the quarter-finals on home soil.

As expected, the server had much joy. This was very much the case in the first ser where just two points were won against the serve in the opening four games. A break opportunity then went the way of Korda to make it 5-3 but he was unable to convert, and the match was again level.

He looked like he may have missed his chance when two set points came and went, which was closely followed by a resulting tiebreak. There were no problems here for Korda who raced into a 5-1 lead before getting over the line with the firts time of asking.

Fritz knew he needed to respond, and he did. It may have come very late, but a break to love was not only a polar opposite of the match so far, but it came at a crucial time with the former US Open finalist making it one set all.

It became a tense affair when both players had break point opportunities but were not taken. A second tiebreak of the match came along, and it was so much closer. Korda went out into 3-0 and 5-2 leads. From this point, Fritz won five points in a row to seal the deal and place himself in the semi-finals.

The number two American Ben Shelton also had to come through all three sets to find a route past Miomir Kecmanovic, defeating the Serbian 5-7, 6-3, 6-4. It was a match where Shelton's serving would come in crucial, winning 92% of first serve points with a 100% hit rate in the second set.

A late break of serve from Kecmanovic put him 6-5 up after almost every game had been comfortably won by the server. He then continued that trend to move ahead. However, he would need to stay at his best game if he was going to get a positive result against the world number nine.

A terrific response from Shelton saw him break the serve in an instant enroute to a 3-0 lead at the start of the second set. He would not face another obstacle as the match moved to a highly anticipated third set. Similar events would unfold as Shelton broke the serve with his second chance to move 3-2 ahead. He would miss a match point at 5-3 but make up for it on serve to book his spot in the last four.

"Tonight was more about shot making, one-two punches, putting returns in the court with quality and big moments. For me, that's what really got me over the line," Shelton said. "I thought he played extremely well. It was really tough to win the points from the baseline."

Last year's champion Denis Shapovalov was under a lot of pressure to scoop up the ranking points that are set to come off his overall ranking. He has done a good job so far after knocking out the third seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 5-7, 6-4, 6-3.

The breaks of serve in this match would be sparse but critical. After reaching 5-5 in the first set, a break to love executed with perfection from the Spaniard put him in the driving seat. His hard work was almost instantly undone by a charging Shapovalov who could not convert the break back point as he was forced to watch himself go a set behind.

Both players failed to take their break opportunities early on but it would be the Canadian who was spared later on. He would take his fifth break point of the set, four of which were set points, and get the match back on level terms. The third set's only break of throw would come much earlier, and again it was Shapovalov who executed it. He sneaked into a 3-1 lead which later become 4-1, and he never looked back. He took his second match point and is back in the semi-final stage in Dallas.

"I had to stick with it in the second. I had a few games where I kind of lost my rhythm and I tried to get it back as good as possible," Shapovalov said. "Got a little bit lucky at that 5-4 game, a few loose double faults from Alex and was able to capitalise. So, yeah, definitely a little bit lucky there, but I played a great third set and just happy to be alive."

Qualifier Jack Pinnington Jones had enjoyed a marvellous week in the USA. He had defeated the fourth seed Flavio Cobolli enroute to a first ATP quarter-final, but the journey would come to an end after former US Open champion Marin Cilic took him down 6-1, 6-4.

The opening match of the session would turn out to be by far the quickest and most straightforward. This was the case in the first set. When Pinnington Jones levelled up at 1-1, the Croatian put on the afterburners and won five games on the spin to move into an unassailable lead.

The second set would be more hotly competed by the Brit but being broken halfway through it was not in the plan. He was unable to even come up with a break opportunity until what would turn out to be the final game of the match, That could have been different if he took one of his two break chances to make it 5-5, but Cilic won the final four points and cemented his spot in the semi-finals.

He will come up against Fritz for a spot in the final while Shelton and Shapovalov go head to head with both matches set to be played out on February 14.