Jódar beats Fils in Montreal and reaches his first semifinals of a Masters 1,000

The Spanish tennis player Rafa Jódar has reached the semifinals of the Montreal tournament (Canada), the sixth ATP Masters 1,000 of the season, after defeating the Frenchman Arthur Fils this Tuesday (7-6(5), 6-3), and will seek his first final in a competition of this category against the American Brandon Nakashima.

In a match postponed on Monday due to rain and which this Tuesday was stopped again for almost an hour for the same reason, the player from Madrid guaranteed his presence in his first semifinals of a Masters 1,000 by ending the resistance of a Fils team that he already surpassed just a few days ago in his debut in Washington.

The world number 15 survived a break point against him in the opening game before breaking the first serve of the Frenchman, ranked 24th in the ATP rankings, and taking a 3-0 lead. With a good percentage of firsts, the Spaniard had two more games left to seal the double break, but Fils defended himself against those five break points.

From a possible 5-1 it went to 4-3 which allowed a Fils to revive that did not miss its second opportunity to break the set, before the rain forced the duel in Montreal to be stopped with 5-4 for the Spanish and the French leading 30-0 in the tenth game.

After almost an hour of interruption, the Frenchman equalized the set (5-5). Both defended their remaining serves and the set had to be resolved in the tie-break. In sudden death, a ‘mini-break’ was enough for the Spaniard to take the lead in the match on his third set point.

He achieved another break in the third game, to which Fils responded with a ‘counterbreak’, and subsequently took another blank game to the rest to bring victory closer. He later confirmed the break and in the next game, from the back of the court, he again had four opportunities to close the match; He wasted the first three, but managed to close the duel after one hour and 42 minutes.

Now, he will face the American Brandon Nakashima for a place in the final of the Canadian competition. The American, number 31 in the world, beat the Italian Luciano Darderi (6-2, 6-3) in the first quarterfinal match on Tuesday.

Dani Mérida, who played his first quarter-final round in a Masters 1000 this Tuesday, was not able to overcome the American Lenard Tien. The Madrid native fell in two sets (6-3, 6-2) in a match in which his strength was hampered by his serve, which he gave up on four occasions, two in each set.

Despite the defeat, the Mérida tournament is already his best performance in a Masters 1000, and it helped him rise to the Top 40 of the ATP ranking for the first time in his career. For his part, Tien will face his compatriot Ben Shelton, current champion of the tournament, in the semifinal of the tournament, who defeated the Czech Jakub Mensik in the quarterfinals (6-3, 6-1).