By Richard Pagliaro | Wednesday, November 3, 2021
Taylor Fritz upset fifth-seeded Andrey Rublev 7-5, 7-6(2) scoring his third straight Top 10 triumph to reach the Rolex Paris Masters round of 16.
Photo credit: Getty
Blown out by Andrey Rublev in their last clash, Taylor Fritz proved there is life after competitive death in their Paris rematch.
A recharged Fritz rode his blistering serve—and a pivotal point penalty against the raging Russian in the tiebreaker—to fight off the fifth-seeded Rublev 7-5, 7-6(2) and advance to the Rolex Paris Masters round of 16.
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A streaking Fritz scored his 10th win in his last 12 matches.
Continuing to bring his best against the elite, Fritz stamped his third straight Top 10 triumph following victories over seventh-ranked Matteo Berrettini and No. 4 Alexander Zverev en route to last month’s Indian Wells semifinals.
Rublev ripped Fritz apart permitting just four games in a Dubai round of 16 win earlier this year.
In this rematch of former ITF junior world No. 1 players, Fritz flipped the script with a commanding serving performance. Fritz served 65 percent, fired 11 aces against one double fault, denied the lone break point he faced in the third game of the second set and played fierce first-strike tennis in an 80-minute victory.
Afterward, Fritz said he was committed to first-strike tennis against ballistic ball-striker Rublev.
“I got killed in Dubai—I didn’t even give myself a chance to get into that match. I just didn’t serve well [then],” Fritz told Tennis Channel’s Prakash Amritraj in his on-court interview today. “Really fast courts—the serve was always going to be important in Dubai. I couldn’t touch his serve and I had an off serving day so I couldn’t even get into the match to begin with.
“Here, I served really well today. I knew it was gonna be important to make a lot of serves for the free points and to get the first strike when he returns them. Between the both of us whoever gets the first kind of hit on the ball is usually winning the point. It was just a lot of serving back and forth. I only broke him the one time. Really wasn’t any break chances throughout the match. I just took care of my serve really.”
Rotterdam champion Rublev was hoping to pick up his 50th win of the season in Paris, but will no set his sights on the season-ending ATP Finals in Turin later this month.
Clad in identical white and blue Nike apparel, including matching yellow headbands, Fritz and Rublev traded heavy baseline blows with the 24-year-old American earning the edge in some key backhand exchanges.
Rublev rallied from love-30 down scoring four points in a row to even after eight games.
Serving to extend the set in the 12th game, Rublev confronted another 0-30 hole. This time, Fritz rapped a backhand down the line, attacked and knocked off a volley for triple set point.
Standing toe-to-toe with the Russian in a forehand exchange, Fritz drew the netted error to take the 36-minute opener with the lone break of the set.
St. Petersburg finalist Fritz knew he had to serve with authority to threaten Rublev and did exactly that in the first set. Fritz served 63 percent, pumped seven aces and won 18 of 22 first-serve points often playing points on his terms in the opener.
The 24-year-old Russian left the court to reset. Rublev returned to earn a break point in the third game of the second set, but Fritz maintained the depth of his groundstrokes and crunched some crosscourt forehands to tame trouble and hold for 2-1.
Fifty-nine minutes into the match, Fritz fired his ninth ace out wide for 4-3.
In the tiebreaker, Rublev opened with an error and later compounded his problems with a costly blow up. Rublev punctuated an error smashing his Head racquet against the bottom of his shoe in disgust leaving a mangled mess of the head. That action earned Rublev both a racquet abuse warning and a point penalty because he had belted a ball into the crowd earlier extending Fritz’s lead to 5-1 in the breaker.
Fritz flashed an ace for a fistful of match points then pumped a sensational running forehand winner crosscourt to cap an 11-shot rally. Fritz will face 10th-seeded Cameron Norrie for a place in his third consecutive quarterfinal.
Indian Wells champion Norrie broke Reilly Opelka three times in a 6-3, 6-4 win. Norrie, who scored his 100th career victory against Federico Delbonis in his opener, raised his 2021 record to 50-21 as he plays for his third title of the year.
Hitting his targets on serve precisely, Fritz moves up to No. 24 in the live rankings and is targeting his first career Top 20 finish to a season.
“I’ve always felt when I start playing well it’s almost easier to continue because you have the confidence,” Fritz said. “You obviously know what’s working for you, the routine, so you just kind of keep doing what you’ve been doing, keep it going.
“I really want to finish Top 20 this year—only two weeks left—so it’s not too hard to just kind of push myself these final two weeks.”
It was a day of upsets in Paris.
Lefty lucky loser Dominik Koepfer backed up his three-hour upset of Andy Murray saving seven match points along the way by stunning Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-3, 7-5.
The ninth-seeded Canadian committed eight double faults and dropped serve four times. Auger-Aliassime may well have felt the pressure of his quest to qualify for the season-ending ATP Finals, but Koepfer shattered that dream.
A two-time all-American at Tulane, Koepfer will try to continue his inspired run when he meets seventh-seeded Hubert Hurkacz for a place in the last eight.
Miami Open champion Hurkacz continued his hunt for a spot in Turin. Despite blowing a 5-0 lead in the opening set, Hurkacz stabilized his nerve and serve stopping American qualifier Tommy Paul 7-5, 7-6(4). If Spanish teenager Carlos Alcaraz beats eighth-seeded Jannik Sinner later today, Hurkacz will surpass Sinner for the eighth and final place in the race to Turin with 11 days left in the ATP regular season.
“Right now, it’s whoever’s gonna do it here or next week best, goes,” Hurkacz told Prakash Amritraj afterward. “Myself trying to play well to compete as hard as I can and yeah, we will see at the end who is there.”
French qualifier Hugo Gaston fired up the home faithful toppling 12th-seeded Pablo Carreno Busta 6-7(3), 6-4, 7-5. Gaston converted seven of 17 break points and will play the Alcaraz vs. Sinner winner in the round of 16.