Frances Tiafoe is now one win away from the biggest title of his career in Acapulco

Frances Tiafoe is now a win away from the biggest title of his career after rallying to defeat countryman Brandon Nakashima in the semifinals of Acapulco on Friday night, 3-6, 7-6 (6), 6-4.

Nakashima served for the match at 6-5 in the second set.

“It’s incredible. The stars are definitely aligning, man, it’s not making sense, anything that happened,” Tiafoe said afterwards.

“Things started to make sense when I was down. Obviously I had a couple of net cords there. You know, made every return there at 6-5. But obviously I wasn't feeling my best. I was just competing and battling, and sometimes you get lucky. Played great tennis in the third—in the third I was the better player.

“Just battling, man. Never say die. I was ready to empty the tank.”

Tiafoe was no stranger to emptying the tank going into the semifinals, having already come back from the brink of defeat in his second-round match a few days earlier, fighting off double match point down 6-4 in the third set tie-break to win another all-American duel with Aleksandar Kovacevic, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7).

On Friday night, not only did Nakashima serve for the match at 6-5 in the second set, but that was after he brought up triple break point at 3-all earlier in the set but couldn’t convert—he was also two points from victory at 6-all in the second set tie-break.

But Tiafoe hung on and snuck out that marathon 71-minute second set, broke serve in the first game of the third set and eventually broke again for a 5-2 lead in the decider. Nakashima got one of the breaks back and closed in to 5-4, but Tiafoe served it out on his second try, finishing it off with a big overhead.

The former No. 10’s reward for his comeback victory is a spot in the 11th ATP final of his career, and a shot at his biggest title—his three career ATP titles to date have all come at the ATP 250 level, in Delray Beach in 2018 and in Houston and Stuttgart in 2023.

He’s been to three finals at the ATP 500 level or higher but finished runner-up each time, at Vienna in 2021 (ATP 500), Tokyo in 2022 (ATP 500) and Cincinnati in 2024 (Masters 1000).

Awaiting Tiafoe in the final will be Italy's Flavio Cobolli, who rallied from 3-1 down in the third set to defeat Miomir Kecmanovic in the first semifinal match of the day, 7-6 (5), 3-6, 6-4.

Cobolli will now chase his third ATP title, and the equal-biggest of his career, having won an ATP 500 in Hamburg last year.

Tiafoe has won both of his previous meetings against the Italian, both in straight sets and both on outdoor hard courts, in the quarterfinals of Delray Beach in 2024 (6-4, 6-2) and in the third round of Washington D.C. last summer (6-1, 6-4).