Marcos Giron continued his path of destruction through the Dallas draw on Saturday, taking out Adrian Mannarino in the semifinals, 6-1, 6-3, to reach the second ATP final of his career.
The American hasn’t lost a set all week, including in a near-identical 6-1, 6-4 win over Frances Tiafoe in the quarterfinals on Friday.
And with these back-to-back wins over Tiafoe and Mannarino, Giron has now won four of his last five matches against Top 20 players, a run that dates back to the ATP 500 in Tokyo last October.
GIRON VS TOP 20 PLAYERS SINCE TOKYO:
d. No. 8 Ruud in 2023 Tokyo 2nd Rd, 6-3, 6-4
d. No. 17 Auger-Aliassime in 2023 Tokyo QFs, 6-1, 6-4
l. to No. 19 Shelton in 2023 Tokyo SFs, 6-7 (2), 7-6 (5), 6-4
d. No. 14 Tiafoe in 2024 Dallas QFs, 6-1, 6-4
d. No. 17 Mannarino in 2024 Dallas SFs, 6-1, 6-3
And there’s more: in the only loss on the list, to Shelton in Tokyo, Giron was actually up a set and a double break at 7-6 (2), 5-2 and was two points from winning the match a total of four separate times.
Giron now has 13 career wins over Top 20 players, with all of them coming since the fall indoor season at the end of 2020.
He’s been ranked as high as No. 49 himself. He’s currently No. 67.
Giron was never in trouble against Mannarino, jumping out to a 4-0, double-break lead right out of the gates and never looking back, breaking a third time to put away the first set and then one last time for a 5-3 lead in the second set before serving the match out.
The American only faced one break point the entire match, when he was already up 3-0 in the first set, and swatted it away with a winner.
He didn’t even face any break points against Tiafoe the day before.
“For me, having such a big win yesterday was awesome,” Giron said afterwards. “I was really, really happy to come back today, but the past is the past, and I just take each moment as it is and do my best.”
Giron is now a win away from his first ATP title. He’s been to one final before, in San Diego in 2022, falling to Brandon Nakashima.
Awaiting him in this final will be another Top 20 player, Tommy Paul, who defeated Ben Shelton in the first semifinal of the day, 6-2, 6-4.
“It’ll be fun playing against him,” Giron said. “He’s an amazing player, Top 20 player, and it’s cool to be playing each other in the finals here.”
The two have played each other twice at tour-level, splitting those 1-1. They played three times before that below tour-level, at Futures and Challengers, and Giron leads those meetings, 2-1.
