Durant, Harris readily available to see Tiafoe dispatch Karatsev at Mubadala Citi DC Open

World No. 10 Frances Tiafoe introduced out the celebs to Rock Creek Park as he started what he hopes is a run to a hometown title on the Mubadala Citi DC Open, beating Aslan Karatsev in two nearly-identical units, 7-6(5), 7-6(5).

The Hyattsville native had the backing of fellow Prince George’s County native and Phoenix Suns star Kevin Durant together with new Washington Commanders proprietor Josh Harris sitting courtside, and NBA abilities Kentavious Caldwell-Pope of Denver and Daniel Gafford of the hometown Wizards close by as he superior to the second spherical, the place he’ll face Juncheng Shang of China.

The course of the match basically may very well be gleaned from the an identical scoreline on an autumnal-feeling August night time within the District. It went with no break of serve for all the 2:09 it took, with Karatsev unflappable on nearly all of his service video games, and Tiafoe constant in his motion and shot choice.

Karatsev had three break factors within the first set, two within the first sport because of a handful of Tiafoe unforced errors, and one at 1-all, however Tiafoe was in a position to maintain each occasions.

Tiafoe didn’t get almost as near breaking Karatsev. The Russian gained 18 of his 21 first-serve factors, and Tiafoe may solely muster 9 complete factors throughout Karatsev’s six service video games within the 59-minute set — with two of these given to him by double faults.

The first-set tiebreak, although, turned the equalizer. And its turning level — and the match’s as nicely — got here halfway via.

Up 4-3, the mint-green clad Tiafoe used a few of Karatsev’s volleying sport in opposition to him, charging the web and cracking two huge overhead smashes to place the purpose away. He would get to 6-3 when Karatsev couldn’t deal with his serve, and would wish all three set factors he earned, unleashing an ace on the ultimate one to win the set. The 141 mile-per-hour exclamation level was the quickest serve thus far this event.

The second set almost prefectly adopted the script of the primary. Tiafoe had his second and greatest break alternative of the match at 2-all after Karatsev double faulted on the primary deuce level of the sport. Tiafoe would miss a return on the ninth shot of the rally, nevertheless, and Karatsev would win the following two factors to carry.