Montreal Belongs to the Kids: Jodar-Nakashima and Shelton-Tien

The National Bank Open quarterfinals all finished in straight sets. Ben Shelton dispatched Jakub Mensik 6-3, 6-1, Learner Tien got past Daniel Merida 6-3, 6-2, Brandon Nakashima beat Luciano Darderi 6-2, 6-3, and Rafael Jodar eliminated Arthur Fils 7-6(5), 6-3. None of the eight quarterfinalists was born before 2001.

Shelton, Tien, and Nakashima put three Americans into the Canada semifinals for the first time since 1992, when Agassi, Lendl, and Washington managed it.

Jodar is the first player born in 2006 or later to reach a Masters 1000 semifinal. He started the year ranked No. 168; he's now 11th in the live rankings. On the other side of the net tonight will be Nakashima, 25, also at his first semifinal at this level. It's the first singles meeting between the two, who played doubles together in Washington.

The other semifinal pits two American lefties against each other. Shelton, world No. 10 and the No. 5 seed, is defending the title he won last year in Toronto and is the only top-10 player left in the draw; the win over Mensik was his 16th career tour-level semifinal. Tien, 20 and ranked No. 19, had reached the quarterfinals as the youngest American to do so in Canada since Roddick in 2002. Tien has won both of their previous meetings, on the grass of Mallorca in 2025 and at Indian Wells in March, the latter in three sets.

Three of the four semifinalists have never won a Masters 1000. The fourth won one a year ago, in Toronto.