There's no place like home for Frances Tiafoe, who advanced to his fourth consecutive quarter-final at the Mubadala Citi DC Open on Thursday. A native of nearby Maryland, the American scored a statement 6-1, 6-4 victory against returning finalist Flavio Cobolli to reach his third quarter-final of the 2025 ATP Tour season after Houston and Roland Garros.
Tiafoe joins Andre Agassi and Alexander Zverev as the only men this century to reach the Washington quarters in four consecutive years. With his first Top 20 win of the season (1-2), Tiafoe has now recorded back-to-back hard-court wins for the first time since his run to the 2024 US Open semi-finals.
"I got in a really good rhythm there at the end of the second [set]," said Tiafoe, who has made an effort to play first-strike tennis on the hard courts. "These courts are really fast, and it helps... I kind of like that, short rallies and big serves."
Tiafoe beat countryman Ben Shelton in last year's US Open third round and will now have a chance to level the pair's Lexus ATP Head2Head at 2-2 when the home favourites meet again in Friday's quarter-finals. Shelton booked his place in the last eight with a 6-3, 6-2 win against Gabriel Diallo.
"I'm excited," Tiafoe said of the matchup. "We're great friends. We played an incredible match at the Open last year, I think that's the best we actually both played. He got me the first couple of times.
"He's a great player, a great friend of mine. Laver Cups, Davis Cups. We talk to each other outside of the game, we hang out outside of the game. I love that dude, but tomorrow obviously there's no friends. We're going to try to cut each other's heads off, and the crowd's going to love it. I'm going to love the competition, and I hope to get over the line."
Shelton is into his second quarter-final in as many events after reaching that stage at Wimbledon, where he lost to eventual champion Jannik Sinner. Seven of Shelton's 19 tour-level quarter-finals have come on home soil.
Up one place to No. 7 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, Shelton is guaranteed a new career-high ranking on Monday. He is 21-1 after winning the first set this season and has not faced a break point in his two Washington wins, according to Infosys ATP Stats.
American Brandon Nakashima also advanced to the Washington quarters with a 7-6(3), 6-3 win against Cameron Norrie, setting up a meeting with seventh seed Alex de Minaur.
Taylor Fritz made it four Americans into the last eight by closing Thursday's play with a 6-3, 6-4 victory against Italy's Matteo Arnaldi. The top seed is through to his fourth quarter-final in his past five events, including his semi-final showing at Wimbledon.
Now 15-2 since the start of June — a record that includes title runs in Stuttgart and Eastbourne — Fritz will bid to continue his hot streak when he takes on 12th seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina on Friday.
