By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Wednesday August 10, 2022
Taylor Fritz rattled past Nick Kyrgios in 50 blink-and-you-missed it minutes on Wednesday in Cincinnati.
Photo Source: Getty
Taylor Fritz is the top-ranked American, and looking every bit the part in 2022. On Sunday he sent yet another message to the field, reminding the rest of the ATP Tour that he is indeed for real as he swept past Wimbledon finalist Nick Kyrgios 6-3, 6-2 in 50 minutes.
Fritz, who jumps to 34-13 on the season sets a round of 16 clash with Russia’s Andrey Rublev as he improves to 15-3 at the Masters 1000 level this season.
Rublev edged Fabio Fognini in three sets on Wednesday, 6-7(7), 7-6(3), 6-2.
The American’s first meeting with his friend and rival Kyrgios wasn’t much of a contest. Kyrgios, this year’s champion at the Citi Open, never really got off the mark as he was out-aced by Fritz 16 to 7, and broken three times across his eight service games.
To be fair the Aussie seemed to be running on fumes, as he nurses what appears to be a knee injury that has surfaced after an extremely busy summer that has seen him win 16 of his last 19 matches.
Fritz quickly took advantage of Kyrgios’ lull by pouding past him. He hit 24 winners against 8 unforced errors and never hesitated as he sauntered to the finish line.
“It feels great to have [my] game come together today,” Fritz told Mike Cation on court after the match. “That’s the kind of match I really needed to give me a lot of confidence going into the next match, going to the US Open, a lot of things are clicking for sure."