{"id":98272,"date":"2026-02-21T01:36:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T06:36:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=98272"},"modified":"2026-02-21T01:37:57","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T06:37:57","slug":"all-american-matchups-headline-atp-delray-beach-quarterfinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/02\/21\/all-american-matchups-headline-atp-delray-beach-quarterfinals\/","title":{"rendered":"All-American matchups headline ATP Delray Beach quarterfinals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three Americans battled into the ATP Delray Beach Open semifinals on Friday, on an exciting day of tennis showcasing three-set matchups, hot-shots and more.<\/span><\/p>\n

LWOT breaks down Friday\u2019s matches, and has everything you need to know ahead of Saturday\u2019s semifinals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Learner keeps on learning\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

Learner Tien was down 5-4 in the third set on Thursday against Miomir Kecmanovic, staring down defeat against the tournament\u2019s defending champion. He won that match, and found himself in the same situation against Frances Tiafoe on Friday \u2014 this time in front of a primetime night crowd.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But Tien reeled off the last four games of his quarterfinal to stun Tiafoe 7-6 (5) 3-6 7-5 in an epic.<\/a> He\u2019s now taken out the 2018 and 2025 Delray Beach champions this week.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c’I\u2019ve really shown myself that these matches aren’t over until they’re really done,\u201d Tien said. \u201cI just go out there, no matter the score.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He was asked Friday about his result at last year\u2019s Delray Beach Open, where he fell in a crushing loss to Matteo Arnaldi, unable to clinch in a third-set tiebreaker.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI actually was sitting inside that building having a pretty rough go of it,\u201d said Tien, pointing to a nearby player center. \u201cSo yeah, I think that person from a year ago would be pretty surprised to see where I am now.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Tien led 3-0 in the first set on Friday, but Tiafoe soon broke back and looked to serve out the first set twice. But Tiafoe struggled mightily on his serve in the key moments, and he only saved one of the seven break points he faced all match. Tiafoe lost the opening set, and later slammed a ball out of the stadium after dropping serve to open the second set.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After Tiafoe took a medical timeout in the second set, the momentum shifted. Tiafoe won the second set 6-3, crushing a backhand return down the line to break serve one game prior.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

A laser return by Tiafoe, and he\u2019ll serve for the second set in the @DelrayBeachOpen<\/a> quarterfinals. pic.twitter.com\/a54wpFXWiD<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Andreas Pelekis (@atp3417) February 21, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Tiafoe looked like he was cruising early in the third set. He won the first eight points of the set, and dictated the rallies with his forehand and return. Tien nearly trailed by a double break in the decider. But the youngster gradually got the vocal crowd on his side, and by the end of the matchup, chants of \u201cLearner\u201d echoed in the stadium after he set up match point.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tien credited his mom for the Friday win. He initially gave her a shoutout during his on-court interview, saying he didn\u2019t want his parents to leave on Saturday as originally planned.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m making them stay, so I\u2019m glad I won,\u201d<\/em> he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Learner Tien comes back from the brink yet again in Delray Beach. He defeats Frances Tiafoe 7-6 (5) 3-6 7-5 and will play the winner of Taylor Fritz vs. Tommy Paul in the @DelrayBeachOpen<\/a> Saturday semifinals. pic.twitter.com\/Q3xEKpszmv<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Andreas Pelekis (@atp3417) February 21, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Top seed defeated\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

Tien will face Tommy Paul in the semifinals, after he upset top-seeded Taylor Fritz in a rematch of the 2024 Delray Beach Open final. That 2024 final unusually played out on a Monday after a rainout, but this quarterfinal encounter was under a rowdy Friday night crowd.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Paul did not lose serve all match, sealing a 6-4 6-3 victory in 77 minutes. Fritz hit 29 unforced errors, many due to Paul\u2019s defense. In arguably the most important point of the match, Paul snuck a backhand passing shot past the top seed, and did not drop a game afterwards. Paul cited his movement as the key to victory after the match.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Tommy Paul completes the 6-4 6-3 upset over Taylor Fritz to move into the @DelrayBeachOpen<\/a> semifinals. His patriotic superfans are quite happy. pic.twitter.com\/Eht5f7mPGc<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Andreas Pelekis (@atp3417) February 21, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cI moved so well and didn\u2019t really give too many short balls in the court,\u201d Paul said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

His fans, and his superfans \u2014 three high school students known as the \u201cFounding Fathers\u201d<\/a> \u2014 cheered him on along the way.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNormally I get a bit nervous coming to this tournament for the first couple matches, because I want to do well here,\u201d Paul said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to let anybody down. So as the tournament goes on, I feel more and more loose. I get better and better, and I feel the energy from the crowd a little bit better.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Paul will face Tien in the semifinals; he called Tien someone \u201cwho makes the right decision on every ball.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Around the grounds<\/b><\/h3>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

Sebastian Korda was the third American to reach the Saturday semifinals. He upset No. 2 seed Casper Ruud in a 4-6 6-2 6-2 tussle<\/a>. Not including matches ending in a retirement, Korda\u2019s quarterfinal win was his second Top 20 victory since March 2025.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Korda will face the Italian Flavio Cobolli, who fought his way into his first ATP Tour semifinal since last summer. Cobolli let match points slip in the second set against the up-and-coming Coleman Wong, but prevailed 7-5 6-7 (7) 6-2.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Korda and Cobolli will clash in the first semifinal at 3 p.m. on Saturday. The all-American clash of Tien vs. Paul will take place at 8 p.m.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three Americans battled into the ATP Delray Beach Open semifinals on Friday, on an exciting day of tennis showcasing three-set matchups, hot-shots and more. LWOT breaks down Friday\u2019s matches, and has everything you need to know ahead of Saturday\u2019s semifinals.\u00a0 Learner keeps on learning\u00a0\u00a0 Learner Tien was down 5-4 in the third set on Thursday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4624,"featured_media":94622,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2,9],"tags":[18,41892,4733,259,2709,15670,18113,8147,1635],"class_list":["post-98272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-atp","category-featured","category-news","tag-atp","tag-atp-delray","tag-atp-delray-beach","tag-atp-tour","tag-delray-beach-open","tag-flavio-cobolli","tag-learner-tien","tag-sebastian-korda","tag-tommy-paul"],"modified_by":"Steen Kirby","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4624"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98272"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98293,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98272\/revisions\/98293"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}