Taylor Fritz prolonged his profitable streak to 6 matches on the American laborious courts with a comeback win in opposition to Andy Murray on Friday on the Mubadala Citi DC Open. In a match that was postponed from Thursday night by rain, the Atlanta champion earned a 6-7,(2), 6-3, 6-4 victory after three hours of motion on the stadium court docket.
Fritz escaped 0/40 within the last sport, holding his nerve in a number of rallies to make good on his break within the earlier sport. A full-stretch, airborne volley winner introduced up his third match level, which he took with a forehand winner.
“I really feel like once I’m down these break factors, generally the opponent would possibly really feel some added stress to it,” Fritz mentioned post-match. “Currently I really feel like I have been enjoying these massive factors even higher and simply having readability of understanding what photographs I wish to hit. It has been feeling nice as a result of that is not at all times the case, so I am actually proud of how I have been enjoying these massive factors.”
Excessive on high quality and pleasure, the pair’s second Lexus ATP Head2Head assembly proved to be definitely worth the wait, with Fritz’s win enhancing him to 2-0 of their collection. The American won’t have to attend lengthy for his subsequent match: He’ll return to the court docket Friday night to tackle Australia’s Jordan Thompson within the quarter-finals — his eleventh tour-level quarter-final of the season.
By changing into the fourth participant to notch 40 wins this season (40-16), Fritz denied Murray what would have been his first High 10 win since he beat Stefanos Tsitsipas final June in Stuttgart.
After saving eight break factors in his opening win in opposition to Zachary Svajda, Fritz saved eight of 9 in opposition to Murray, together with three as he served out the match. The American twice rallied from 0/40 within the second set in opposition to Svajda on Wednesday. Previous to D.C., Fritz held serve simply as soon as in 13 instances dealing with 0/40 this season.
Fritz hit 17 aces in opposition to Murray and on 77 per cent of his first-serve factors, however he couldn’t rely solely on energy within the gradual and humid D.C. situations.
“I needed to come to web, I needed to drop shot, and I needed to simply transfer the ball far more,” Fritz mentioned. “I am unable to simply run round and pull the set off on one ball and hit a winner like I am used to. Numerous instances you are taking the prospect to be aggressive and it does not actually accomplish something, you form off simply must re-set the purpose.”
Earlier on Friday, Thompson earned his quarter-final place with a 6-2, 6-2 win in opposition to Christopher Eubanks, a match that started on Thursday night earlier than the rain. Within the resumption of one other suspended match, twelfth seed Tallon Griekspoor earned a 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 consequence in opposition to Gael Monfils.
Ninth seed Daniel Evans additionally superior to the quarters with a 6-4, 6-3 win in opposition to Alexander Shevchenko. He awaits the winner of the final remaining Spherical of 16 match: Second seed Frances Tiafoe vs. Chinese language qualifier Shang Juncheng.
.jpg)
