DC Open men’s semifinals: Alex de Minaur wins, Ben Shelton falls short
WASHINGTON — Alex de Minaur ended Corentin Moutet’s “lucky loser” run at the Mubadala Citi DC Open.
Moutet, a 26-year-old Frenchman who earned that label after losing in qualifying but taking Holger Rune’s spot in the tournament when he withdrew, made an impressive march to the semifinals, defeating 2023 champion Dan Evans in the Round of 16 and No. 8 seed and 2021 U.S. Open champion Daniil Medvedev in the quarterfinals.
But No. 7 seed de Minaur, a 26-year-old Australian, refused to be Moutet’s next conquered opponent and cruised to a 6-4, 6-3 victory in 1 hour, 45 minutes on Saturday night at Rock Creek Tennis Center.
In a post-match interview with the Tennis Channel, de Minaur pointed out how he did not take Moutet for granted considering his path to the semifinals.
“We all saw what he did yesterday,” de Minaur said. “Today, I knew it wasn’t going to be pretty, but I did what I needed to do to get to the finals here.”
De Minaur advanced to his second singles final of the year and 19th of his career. He is 9-9 in his previous finals appearances, winning his last title on June 10, 2024, at ’s-Hertogenbosch.
De Minaur will play in Sunday’s final at 5:30 p.m. against No. 12 seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who upset No. 4 seed Ben Shelton.
Both de Minaur and Moutet held their opening serves. De Minaur had a chance to break with the score tied at 1-1, but Moutet warded him off.
De Minaur got a second break point opportunity during Moutet’s next serve, but Moutet kept him at bay again. But on Moutet’s next service game, back-to-back backhand errors gave de Minaur the opening he needed to finish off the first set.
The initial setback elicited some frustration from Moutet. First, he spiked his racquet off the hardcourt and then broke the racquet over his knee. That second outburst earned him a warning for racquet abuse.
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De Minaur took advantage of Moutet’s emotional display by breaking him in his first two service games and sprinting to a 4-0 lead. Although Moutet later broke de Minaur twice, de Minaur also broke Moutet twice, including using a Moutet double fault on match point to cement the triumph.
De Minaur attacked the net, winning 17 of 21 points there. He said being aggressive was part of his strategy.
“He’s got amazing wheels,” he said of Moutet. “He can extend rallies forever and ever. But I do feel that at times, you can kind of sneak in on his backhand side and kind of make him pass off the slice. And if he does, too good. But yet again, he managed to play some good points when I came in at the very end, throwing in some deep lobs and hitting some pretty amazing passing shots. Ultimately that was the game plan, and I was going to back that until the very last point.”
Shelton falls short
Ben Shelton, the last American hope at the DC Open, is out.
Shelton, the 22-year-old Atlanta native who was the tournament’s No. 4 seed, might have envisioned joining Sebastian Korda, another American who captured last year’s DC Open title. But Shelton ran into No. 12 seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who pulled off a 6-2, 7-5 upset in a swift 1 hour, 19 minutes late Friday night.
Davidovich Fokina, a 26-year-old Spaniard, should have been the more exhausted of the two. He needed three sets to upend No. 1 seed Taylor Fritz, 7-6 (3), 3-6, 7-5, in a quarterfinal match that did not end until 1:55 a.m. on Saturday.
Davidovich Fokina told the Tennis Channel afterwards how he regained his energy for Saturday’s semifinal.
“I went to Starbucks and got coffee,” he said. “I relaxed, slept again, and then came back here two hours before the first semifinal. … I felt a lot of energy, and I think I showed today that I had a lot of energy and am good for tomorrow.”
Although Shelton defeated No. 6 seed Frances Tiafoe, 7-6 (2), 6-4, earlier on Friday, he stumbled midway through the first set. Davidovich Fokina broke Shelton in back-to-back service games to turn a 2-2 tie into a 5-2 lead that the latter could not overcome.
In the second set, Davidovich Fokina broke Shelton again to take a 4-3 lead. After each player held serve, Shelton turned the tables by breaking Davidovich Fokina to knot the score at 5-5.
But Davidovich Fokina got the break back on a precise forehand passing shot that eluded Shelton’s outstretched racquet. Davidovich Fokina then served out the match.
Despite Shelton’s reputation as one of the more fearsome servers in the sport today, Davidovich Fokina removed the intimidation factor by getting his racquet on the ball.
“Ben is a top-10 player. He’s one of the best servers right now,” Davidovich Fokina told the Tennis Channel, noting that the ball is slower on the hardcourts than the grass at Wimbledon earlier this month. “For me, it was easier for me to return the serve.”
Davidovich Fokina will play in his fourth singles final and is seeking his first championship. This will be his third finals appearance of the year after finishing runner-up at the Delray Beach Open and Mexican Open in February.
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