Can 12th seeded Tommy Paul cause another upset in the National Bank Open? He faces seventh seeded Jannik Sinner in the last four, 24 hours after beating top seed Carlos Alcaraz. Paul has had a busy tournament with his four matches seeing 11 sets played. Three of his matches have gone to a final set (two against unseeded opponents) and all of them saw him win the first one. Paul reached the last four of the Australian Open earlier this year and that was also on an outdoor hard court. He's in the semi-finals of this tournament for the first time, his previous best being the last eight in 2022 when played in Montreal. He's showing good consistency at present with at least the quarter finals reached in three tournaments in a row. Paul is 1-1 in previous matches against Sinner but this is their first meeting on a hard court.
Jannik Sinner has become one of the most consistent players on the tour, regardless of what surface he's playing on. He is strong on hard courts though and a win here will take him into his fourth final on this surface in 2023. One hard court title has been won in France and he also got to the final in Rotterdam and the Masters event in Miami. Only three players have earned more ranking points than Sinner this year. This is the fourth straight tournament in which he's got to at least the last eight. Only two matches have had to be played to get this far in Toronto. He's beaten Matteo Berrettini and Gael Monfils (in his three set quarter final) and received a walkover against the injured Andy Murray. We tip him to get the win here and face either Alejandro Davidovich-Fokina or Alex de Minaur (both unseeded) in the final.