Just four players remain in contention for the title at the 2022 ATP Japan Open in Tokyo. Denis Shapovalov and Taylor Fritz meet in a very high-profile semifinal, while Frances Tiafoe will try to stop the amazing run of Soon-woo Kwon. Who do you think will make it to the championship match?
ATP Tokyo Semifinal Predictions
Soon-woo Kwon vs Frances Tiafoe
Head-to-head: Tiafoe 1-0
It wasn’t a certainty that Frances Tiafoe would just kick on from his US Open run, but it looks like he has. The American scored that phenomenal comeback win against Stefanos Tsitsipas at Laver Cup and has been very dominant in Tokyo so far.
Soon-woo Kwon turned his season around in one week. A string of poor results led to the South Korean falling out of the top 100 recently, but he’ll be back up there with this big run, which he kicked off by upsetting Alex de Minaur in straight sets.
Is this where the fairytale ends? Probably. Tiafoe’s one of these players who can be extremely threatening when on a hot streak. If he plays his best, he should have a big edge in this matchup.
Prediction: Tiafoe in 2
Denis Shapovalov vs Taylor Fritz
Head-to-head: Shapovalov 4-1
After suffering from COVID-19 last week, Taylor Fritz hasn’t been at his best. He still managed to pull through James Duckworth and Hiroki Moriya, but it wasn’t pretty.
The same cannot be said about Denis Shapovalov, who seems to have found a rich vein of form of late. There were some signs at Cincinnati and the US Open, but he truly resurfaced last week in Seoul, only falling to Yoshihito Nishioka in the final.
The head-to-head lead is probably a matter of sample size rather than a matchup issue. As it stands though, Shapovalov seems likely to score another win over Fritz as he’s been way more comfortable on the court this week.
Prediction: Shapovalov in 3
Main Photo from Getty.
