Fritz Cruises In Atlanta Opener

Second seed Taylor Fritz kicked off his North American hard-court season in style on Thursday at the BB&T Atlanta Open, hammering 10 aces to prevail in an all-American match with qualifier Kevin King 6-2, 6-3.

Fritz raced through eight of the first 11 games en route to claiming victory in 71 minutes. The 21-year-old has been in top form, having won his first ATP Tour title last month at the Nature Valley International (d. Querrey) and reaching a career-high of No. 30 in the ATP Rankings earlier this month.

Next up for Fritz is Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic, who broke serve four times to win his #NextGenATP clash with eighth-seeded Frenchman Ugo Humbert 6-2, 6-2. The 19-year-old has produced a breakout season that includes his first ATP Tour final at the Turkish Airlines Open Antalya (l. to Sonego) and his first ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final at the BNP Paribas Open. Kecmanovic looks to make his debut this year at the Next Gen ATP Finals, held in Milan from 5-9 November.

Third seed Alex de Minaur put on a serving clinic in dispatching American Bradley Klahn 6-4, 6-4. The #NextGenATP Aussie dropped just seven points on serve (40/47) and didn’t face a break point to advance in 68 minutes. Although the 20-year-old endured a recent string of early exits on clay and grass, he’s 11-4 on hard courts this season and looked confident as he returned to his strongest surface.

Next up for him is Bernard Tomic, who scored a 6-4, 7-6(3) victory in an all-Aussie battle with Matthew Ebden. The 26-year-old Tomic scored his best win of the year by defeating fifth-seeded American Frances Tiafoe on Tuesday.