Fantastic Fritz Powers Past Murray In Montreal

In a season full of impressive victories, Taylor Fritz made another statement on Tuesday.

The American overpowered former World No. 1 Andy Murray 6-1, 6-3 to reach the second round of the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers. Fritz will next play countryman Frances Tiafoe.

“It’s an honour to be on the court with Andy,” Fritz said in his on-court interview. “Just to get the chance to play him, he’s been around, he’s been dominating since before I came on Tour and basically the whole time I’ve been on Tour, so it’s an honour just to play him.”

Throughout his illustrious career, Murray has found ways to turn matches around, especially against big hitters. His defense has stymied the best offensive players of his generation time and time again. But not Tuesday evening under the lights in Montreal.

Fritz showed no fear and consistently went for his shots, whether from neutral positions or on the full stretch. The 10th seed was unrelenting in his offence — winning a 14-minute game to break in Murray’s first service game — and he never looked back to improve to 31-12 on the season.

“You go through different parts of the season. Part of the hard-court season you have a good rhythm, then you go play on clay, then you go back to hard and it might not be the same,” Fritz said. “I haven’t always played well this part of the year before the US Open, so it feels really good this year, it just seems different. I’m playing good tennis right now.”

This year’s BNP Paribas Open champion, who is pursuing his second ATP Masters 1000 title, earned a break at 3-3 in the second set by jumping on a short second serve. Later in the rally, Murray dumped a forehand into the net.

The former World No. 1 battled hard as he always does, earning a chance to level the second set. Fritz quickly blunted that opportunity by crushing a forehand winner.

“There are a couple things I need to dial in. I think I could serve just a little bit better,” Fritz said. “But from the ground I felt great. I was being aggressive, attacking, changing [directions] off of both sides. I think I could go deep if I dial in a few things.”

Fritz’s next opponent, Tiafoe, suffered a heartbreaking late-night loss in Washington against Nick Kyrgios. He got back on track by rallying past Frenchman Benjamin Bonzi 6-7(6), 7-5, 6-3 after two hours and 36 minutes.

Fritz and Tiafoe have known each other since they were juniors. The former has won three of their four ATP Head2Head clashes, most recently triumphing in straight sets in the second round of this year’s Australian Open.

Did You Know?
Fritz is in ninth place in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, 315 points behind eighth-placed Felix Auger-Aliassime. The American is trying to qualify for the Nitto ATP Final for the first time.