Taylor Fritz blasted his way to a 6-3, 6-2 win over Australia’s Nick Kyrgios and a third-round berth at the Cincinnati Open on Wednesday.
In a duel of big servers, it was the American number one who prevailed, sending 16 aces against a missing Kyrgios, who hit just seven and equalized most of them with six double faults.
11th-seeded Fritz took just 51 minutes to sentence Australian Kyrgios to his second loss since losing to Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon final.
Such was Fritz’ dominance on serve that Kyrgios couldn’t come up with a single break opportunity throughout the match, while the 24-year-old American converted three of his seven chances.
“It feels great that my game came together today,” said Fritz. “It’s the kind of match that I really needed to give me a lot of confidence going into the next match, for the US Open, a lot of things are coming together for sure.”
Next Fritz meets sixth-placed Russia’s Andrey Rublev, who recorded a 6-7(7) 7-6(3) 6-2 win over Italy’s Fabio Fognini.
Fourth-seeded Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas sailed into the third round with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Serbian Filip Krajinovic, while eighth-seeded Pole Hubert Hurkacz, second in Montreal on Sunday, beat his this week Doubles partner lost. the hard-hitting American John Isner, 7-6(5) 6-7(5) 6-2.
It was a good day for Canada with both Felix Auger-Aliassime and seventh-placed Denis Shapovalov claiming wins.
Auger-Aliassime overtook Australia’s Alex de Minaur 6-3, 6-2, while Shapovalov defeated in-form American Tommy Paul 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 to record back-to-back wins for the first time since May.
In an all-British clash, ninth-seeded Cameron Norrie fought back to beat former world number one Andy Murray 3-6 6-3 6-4.