#NextGenATP Fritz Leads The Way In Winston-Salem

#NextGenATP American Taylor Fritz picked up his 14^th win of the season on Monday at the Winston-Salem Open, beating Tunisian Malek Jaziri 6-1, 6-4. Fritz reached the quarter-finals at the ATP World Tour 250 event a year ago and will look to reach his second semi-final of 2018 (Houston). He will next meet seventh seed Filip Krajinovic of Serbia in the second round.

The 20-year-old Fritz was one of a number of 2018 Next Gen ATP Finals hopefuls to advance on day two in North Carolina. Countryman Tommy Paul, who qualified, never faced a break point and beat Serbian Laslo Djere 6-3, 7-6(4). Paul will next play eighth seed Steve Johnson.

Spain’s Jaume Munar dismissed Canadian qualifier Brayden Schnur 7-6(5), 7-6(1) to set a second-round #NextGenATP battle with Russian Andrey Rublev, the 11^th seed. In second-round action, Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany upset fourth seed Marco Cecchinato of Italy 6-3, 6-4, and 14^th seed Nicolas Jarry of Chilie swept Italian Andreas Seppi 6-4, 6-3.

France’s Julien Benneteau, in his final ATP World Tour match, fell to Italy’s Matteo Berrettini 6-3, 6-3. Benneteau, 36, plans to retire after the US Open, which starts 27 August. Eighth seed Hyeon Chung was leading Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-6 (5/2) before rain postponed their match late Monday evening.