 Kareen Hashinov vs. Kasper Rude is the first semi-final for the men's US Open for 2022. And both players have had different roads to get to this semi-final stage. Hashinov started the tournament off as the 27th seed and took on American Kudler in the first round. And after dropping the first set, he came back to winning 4-3-6-6-1-6-2-6-2. In the second round, he take on the Brazilian Montero and again he had to fight through in 4-6-3-6-3-5-7-6-4. In the third round, he take on the exciting youngster from the UK, Draper, who had just beaten Oje Aliasim. And after dropping the second set, Draper had to retire through injury, giving Hashinov the win 6-3-4-6-6-5-retirement. In the fourth round, he take on the 12th seed Karinja Buster, who had had a very good US Open series. And after taking two of the first three sets, Hashinov had to battle in the fifth. Eventually getting through 4-6-6-3-6-1-4-6-6-3 to advance to the quarter-finals. In the quarter-finals, Hashinov would take on the number 23 seed Nick Kirios, who just took out Daniel Medvedev, the world number one in defending champion. And after going up two sets to one, he had to fight to the death as Kirios tried to come back, eventually getting through in 5-7-5-4-6-7-5-6-7-6-4 to advance to his first semi-final at a slam. Kaspar Root came into the tournament seated 5 and would take on Kyle Edmund, the Brit who hadn't played for a long time. And this showed as Root won in straight sets 6-3-7-5-6-2. In the second round, he'd take on the exciting unseeded Dutchman Van Rijtoven, who had a great run at Wimbledon. And after dropping the first set, Root had to battle back, eventually prevailing in 4-6-7-6-4-6-4-6-4. In the third round, he'd take on the number 29 seed Tommy Paul, who had been in very good form throughout the US Open series. And after trading tie breaks in the first three sets, it turned into a classic, with Root eventually winning in five sets. 7-6-6-7-7-6-5-7-6-love. In the fourth round, Root would take on the lucky loser Moutay, who got a second chance after a few late withdrawals, and had to make the most of his second chance. And after dropping the third set, Root would eventually cruise through 6-1-6-2-6-7-6-2 to advance to his first US Open quarter-final. In the quarter-finals, Root would take on the number 13 seed Baratini, who had played very well at the US Open the previous few years. But Root came out on fire and would get through in straight sets 6-1-6-4-7-6 to advance to the semi-finals of the US. These two have only played the ones before on the clay a couple of years ago in Rome, so we can't really look too much into that one. Root got the win that day, so maybe has a little bit of confidence from that, but it's a totally different match up this time around. If Hashinov's going to win, he needs to serve well. He served OK against Kirios, he did struggle on the ground strokes in some of his movement, but if he serves well, gets those three points and do what Baratini couldn't do, he can get the win. If Root's going to win, he needs to make Hashinov move. He moved Baratini around with some success. He also needs to be aggressive Root and serve well, served out and lights out in the first couple of sets against Baratini and stick to the game plan. Because when he went away from that game plan against Baratini, it started to go wrong, so he needs to stick to the plan and move Hashinov around. This is going to be a really fun match up. Someone's making their first US Open final and both players probably unlikely to get to this stage at the start of the tournament. But I'm going to go with Root. I think he played so well against Baratini and if he replicates that against Hashinov, he's going to get the win in maybe four sets, maybe even five sets. But let me know down in the comments below who you think is going to win this semi-final.