semifinal

plural semifinals · alternative semi-final

1. hobbiesA playoff in the round with only four players or teams left, the stage before the final.

   Badosa has the slightly more explosive power, but if Navarro can redirect the pace of Badosa’s shots effectively, she could well be on the way to a first Grand Slam semifinal.

   2024 September 9, Michael Dominski, “Everything that happened on Day 9 of the US Open with Navarro, Fritz and Tiafoe advancing to the semifinal”, in The Athletic, archived from the original on 24 Sep 2024

   3 more examples

   Roger Federer extended his grasscourt streak to 57 matches with a victory over Marcos Baghdatis and will play Nicolas Kiefer in the semifinals of the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany.

   2008 June 14, “Federer Extends Streak”, in The New York Times, sourced from The Associated Press, archived from the original on 26 Nov 2022

   In the 1991 Wimbledon semifinal between Michael Stich and Stefan Edberg, there was just one service break in the entire match, and the guy whose serve was broken, Stich, ended up winning the match!

   2008, Pete Sampras, Peter Bodo, Pete Sampras: A Champion's Mind, published 2010, unnumbered page

   The highly anticipated all-American matchup between Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe — marking the first US Open semifinals between two US men in nearly 20 years — will cost you quite a few Honey Deuces to attend.

   2024 September 6, Jordan Valinsky, “Ticket prices for the all-American men’s matchup at the US Open are surging”, in CNN Business, archived from the original on 23 May 2025

2. A competition that narrows a field of contestants (semifinalists) to a set of finalists, for a subsequent final.