By Erik Gudris | Friday, February 12, 2016
Taylor Fritz battled back against Benjamin Becker to reach his first ATP semifinal at the Memphis Open
Photo Credit: Alex Smith/Memphis Open
The best week ever for Taylor Fritz kept on going at the Memphis Open.
The 18-year-old rising American outlasted German veteran Benjamin Becker to reach his first ever career ATP semifinal. The Friday quarterfinal proved an entertaining contest with many plot twists right up till the last point.
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Fritz, who upset No. 2 seed Steve Johnson in round two, jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the opening set. But Becker, best known for beating Andre Agassi in his last match at the 2006 US Open, fought back. Becker soon leveled the set at 4-all. Yet Fritz earned another service break to close out the set 6-4.
Though Fritz would jump out to an early lead, this time in the second set, he again could not sustain his momentum. Despite leading 3-1, serving woes from the young American allowed his opponent back in the match.
Serving at 5-all, Fritz would double fault giving Becker a break point. Fritz then sent a backhand long to give Becker the lead 6-5.
Becker then served out the set to love 7-5.
Things looked bleak for Fritz when Becker appeared to take control of the third set. Now handling Fritz’s pace of shot better, Becker won a 28-shot rally en route to breaking for a 2-1 lead. Fritz responded by breaking right back in the next game for 2-all.
The final set proved a serving contest with Fritz mixing up the pace of his deliveries while Becker served at a very high 80%. Becker made his move though when Fritz committed several errors to hand his opponent a 6-5 lead.
Becker, who had not a won a tour level match this season prior to Memphis, faltered when trying to serve out the win. Tight backhands from the German allowed Fritz to open a 15-40 lead. Fritz then broke back when Becker netted a forehand sending things into a deciding tiebreak.
Ultimately, Fritz’s better serve and bigger forehand proved the deciding factor. At 4-all, Fritz ripped two huge forehands, including one at 100 MPH, to reach 5-4. Later at 5-all, Fritz forced a Becker error to earn his first match point after over two hours of play.
A final extended rally went Fritz’s way after Becker sent his last shot over the baseline. With that, Fritz celebrated the 6-4, 5-7, 7-6(5) win.
Fritz, who jumped over 1000 ranking points last year, is now the youngest American into an ATP semifinal since Michael Chang did so back in 1989.
Next up for Fritz is Ricardas Berankis. The Lithuanian defeated No. 3 seed Donald Young 7-6(3) 6-1.