Dallas, February 15 – Ben Shelton overcame a tough challenge from his fellow left-handed player, Denis Shapovalov, before winning in a final-set tiebreak to reach the Dallas Open final.
The second-seeded American defeated the defending champion 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(4). He saved 10 of the 11 break points he faced, including a crucial save with a well-placed volley at 2-2 in the second set and another save at 5-5 in the third set.
Shelton will face top seed Taylor Fritz in the final. Fritz stopped the resurgence of Marin Cilic in the semi-finals of the Nexo Dallas Open on Saturday.
In a closely contested match, the top seed remained calm and edged out the Croatian 7-6(5), 7-6(3) in a gripping two-hour, two-minute clash, hitting 22 aces against the 37-year-old.
This is the first time since 1981 that the top two seeds have played in the final of three ATP Tour events in the same week. This will change on Sunday.
At the Dallas Open, Rotterdam Open, and Argentina Open, the top two seeds will compete for the trophies. This will be the first time this has happened since the week of October 19, 1981, in Melbourne, Tokyo, and Vienna. The only other time this has happened was during the week of October 6, 1980, in Barcelona, Brisbane, and Tel Aviv, according to ATP reports.
This week, four members of the Top 10 in the ATP Rankings will compete for a title, with two championship clashes exclusively featuring Top-10 players.
Top seed Fritz will face second seed Shelton in the Dallas final. They have split their two previous Lexus ATP Head-to-Head series meetings, including Shelton's win in last year's Toronto semi-finals en route to his first ATP Masters 1000 title.
Top seed Alex de Minaur is the first man to reach the Rotterdam final in three consecutive seasons in tournament history and will try to end the week on a high note against second seed Felix Auger-Aliassime.
Top seed Francisco Cerundolo hopes his third Buenos Aires final will be successful. The Argentine will try to claim his maiden title on home soil against second seed Luciano Darderi.
