Fritz Storms Into St. Petersburg SFs
Taylor Fritz produced an impressive performance on Friday at the St. Petersburg Open, overcoming John Millman 6-4, 6-2 to reach his second consecutive tour-level semi-final.
The American, who celebrated his 24th birthday by defeating Tommy Paul on Thursday, rallied from a break down in the first set and won 73 per cent (19/26) of his first-serve points to advance after 74 minutes.
“It feels great. I came out and played really well today,” Fritz said in his on-court interview. “I knew what I had to do and I did it and I played well and I am happy to be in the semi-finals. There was a really important point [at the start of the second set] and I won that point and I carried the momentum from there. It was a really important break.”
[FOLLOW ACTION]Fritz is yet to drop a set in St. Petersburg and arrived at the ATP 250 event in form, having defeated World No. 4 Alexander Zverev en route to his first ATP Masters 1000 semi-final in Indian Wells earlier this month.
The fifth seed now leads Millman 2-0 in their ATP Head2Head series and is into his sixth tour-level semi-final of the season, with the World No. 28 also advancing to this stage in Doha, Cagliari, Los Cabos and Atlanta.
Fritz will next face Jan-Lennard Struff after the German upset second-seeded Canadian Denis Shapovalov 6-4, 6-3 in 81 minutes.
Struff was strong on serve, winning 88 per cent (22/25) of points behind his first delivery to improve to 5-2 in his ATP Head2Head series against Shapovalov. The 31-year-old has fond memories in St. Petersburg, where he also advanced to the last four in 2017.
“Denis is an amazing player, so the victory means a lot to me, to reach the semi-finals here for a second time,” Struff said in his on-court interview. “He beat me pretty easily in Dubai. He played very good and I didn’t play very well, so I knew I had to put a lot of energy into the match today and I did. I was serving well and returning well, so that was the key.”
Earlier this season, the World No. 53 enjoyed a run to his first tour-level final on home soil in Munich.