Fritz Fires Past Wu, makes it into the Atlanta QFs easily

Taylor Fritz jumped out to an early lead Thursday against Wu Yibing and never looked back to reach the quarter-finals of the Atlanta Open.

The top seed relied on his hefty service delivery in key moments to defeat Wu 6-4, 7-6(5) after one hour, 30 minutes. Fritz started fast, gaining a 4-0 lead to kick off the evening session in Atlantic Station and won 81 per cent of his first-serve points to advance.

“Just a couple points here and there. I had some break chances, he had some break chances,” Fritz said in his on-court interview. “It could have gone either way, I kind of just barely got out of the points I needed to win.”

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In the second set, the California-native saved two set points at 4-5. Fritz then fired three consecutive aces from 30/40 to close the game and later closed the match in a second-set tie-break. 

The 25-year-old Fritz avenged this year’s Dallas Open semi-final loss to Wu, who was eventually crowned champion at the ATP 250 for his maiden tour-level title. Their Lexus ATPHead2Head series is now tied at 1-1.

Fritz, who is World No. 9 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, is chasing his second tour-level trophy of the season, having lifted his fifth ATP Tour crown in Delray Beach in February. He will next meet former World No. 4 Kei Nishikori, who ousted Shang Juncheng 6-4, 7-6(3). Fritz will aim for his maiden Lexus ATPHead2Head win against the Japanese star (0-3).

In other Atlanta action, German Dominik Koepfer mounted a comeback to down third seed Daniel Evans 2-6, 7-6(3), 6-4. World No. 88 Koepfer saved three match points from 3-5, 0/40 in the second set and then broke Evans’ serve when the Brit served for a quarter-final spot the ensuing game. The 33-year-old Evans is on a seven-match skid at tour-level. Koepfer will next meet eighth seed J.J. Wolf, who downed countryman Maxime Cressy 7-6(7), 6-3 to book his ticket to the last eight. Wolf saved a set point at 6/7 in the opening-set tie-break before tallying three consecutive points. World No. 46 Wolf is into his fourth quarter-final of the season.