Dialled-In Fritz Moves Past Garin In Madrid

Chasing his maiden ATP Tour title on clay at the Mutua Madrid Open, Taylor Fritz demonstrated his recent improvement on the surface Monday with a scintillating 6-1 7-6(4) third-round triumph against Cristian Garin.

The American marked his coach Michael Russell’s birthday with a lights-out performance on Arantxa Sanchez Stadium, where he struck the ball cleanly on serve and off the ground throughout his 92-minute victory. The No. 10 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, Fritz fired 26 winners and held his nerve after Garin forced a second-set tie-break to reach the last 16 in Madrid for the first time in three appearances.

Fritz’s sublime display of hitting appeared to have the American on the way to a comfortable victory, but Garin converted his only break point of the match to level the second set at 5-5 to the delight of the Chilean contingent in the crowd. Fritz was not to be denied, however, and the 25-year-old produced a rock-solid tie-break to complete the win and level his ATP Head2Head series with Garin at 1-1.

“I think in the second set when I had some chances, I wasn’t taking them,” said Fritz, who converted three of his 12 break points overall. “When that happens, it kind of turns into one of those matches where I have all the chances and he’s going to get one, and he’s going to [take] it. I think he did well to fight off some break points and it made the match a bit tighter.”

Fritz has now reached at least the quarter-finals in all eight ATP Tour events he has played in 2023. That includes three tournaments on clay — in Monte-Carlo, Munich and now Madrid — and the American hopes his attempts at adapting his game for his least-favoured service can continue to pay dividends at the Caja Magica.

“It’s not grass and it’s not a hard court for me, but I’m making the most of it,” said Fritz. “If you want to be a top player, you need to have results on clay. So there’s not really anything else I can do other than just accept and do my best, and have a positive attitude about it.”

Now 7-2 for the year on clay, the Monte-Carlo semi-finalist Fritz will take on Cameron Norrie or Zhang Zhizhen as he chases his second ATP Masters 1000 title.