Fritz Plays Dream Doubles With Del Potro
Fritz Plays Dream Doubles With Del Potro
American & Argentine come up short in partnership debut
Taylor Fritz called Juan Martin del Potro his dream doubles partner in a Fantasy Doubles feature a few weeks ago on ATPWorldTour.com.
“I’d play with del Potro. Hands down,” he said at the time. “We’d be unstoppable. He has a few inches on me, but I like to think we have pretty similar games. His forehand is still one of the biggest weapons on the ATP World Tour. I’ll never forget I was 11 when he won the US Open and broke into the Top 5. He was dominating everyone in his path. Ruthless on the court, but so humble off it. That’s what I’ve admired most about delPo. He always has a smile on his face, no matter what he’s gone through. He’s a fighter. I’m a fighter. We’ll click.”
On Tuesday at the MercedesCup, Fritz saw the dream become a reality. And though they both made winning starts in singles action earlier in the day, they came up short on the doubles court as they lost to another new pair, Florian Mayer and Philipp Oswald 7-6(5), 6-3.
Fritz, who next meets Roger Federer in second-round singles action Wednesday, said: “I never thought that at the same tournament I’d be playing against Federer and playing doubles with del Potro.”
Mayer and Oswald go on to face No. 2 seeds Florin Mergea and Horia Tecau. Mergea won the Stuttgart doubles title last year alongside Rohan Bopanna.
Oliver Marach and Fabrice Martin, winners of two ATP World Tour titles this season, also advanced to the quarter-finals as they defeated Andrey Kuznetsov and Gilles Simon 6-3, 7-6(2). Meanwhile, Sam Groth and Robert Lindstedt closed out a 6-4, 7-6(4) win over Croatians Marin Cilic and Antonio Sancic.
At the Ricoh Open in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, second seeds Ivan Dodig and Rajeev Ram rallied for a 6-7(9), 6-4, 10-7 victory over Aliaksandr Bury and Igor Zelenay. Third seeds Dominic Inglot and Raven Klaasen also needed a Match Tie-break to get by the Dutch duo of Wesley Koolhof and Matwe Middelkoop 3-6, 6-3, 10-8.
Americans Steve Johnson and Sam Querrey, teaming up for the first time since their triumph last month at the Geneva Open, bowed out against Chris Guccione and Andre Sa, 6-2, 3-6, 10-6.