Fritz Beats Auger-Aliassime To Make SFs At ATP Finals, Nadal Gets A Win; Tsitsipas v Rublev Fri.
Taylor Fritz didn’t even qualify for the ATP Finals, but now he’s in the last four.
Fritz got in only after Carlos Alcaraz withdrew, and he’s made the most of his fortunes in his debut.
Today, Fritz reached the semifinals with a stunning win over Felix Auger-Aliassime 7-6(4), 6-7(5), 6-2 in what was a virtual semifinal with the winner moving on and the loser going home.
Powered by his booming serve, Fritz was too tough in the opener edging the favorite Canadian. Auger-Aliassime wasn’t able to break in the second set either, but managed to scratch out the breaker to stay alive.
In the third, Fritz would get a break in the sixth game and rolled to the semifinals.
“I needed to serve well the whole time, I knew that,” Fritz said. “It was frustrating throughout the match when so many points I was one away from break point. So many times at 15-30, 0-30 when I was returning, I got myself in the points and kept losing the points. I just tried to stay patient and not get frustrated and then I capitalized when I got the chances.”
Auger-Aliassime drops to 0-2 career against the American, with both losses this year.
“It was a very high-quality match for sure,” Auger-Aliassime said. “In the third set, bad choices, bad execution some parts. Maybe I lost the focus a little bit. The fact that I’m tired, sometimes you don’t feel like you’re tired, but it’s late, you’ve played a lot. I’ve played a long year.
Fritz will have a day off before returning Saturday to face the Red Group winner which will be either Novak Djokovic or the Stefanos Tsitsipas-Andrey Rublev winner.
Earlier, Rafael Nadal got a win topping Casper Ruud 7-5, 7-5 in a rematch of their French Open. The win snapped Nadal 4-match losing streak. Ruud had already won the Green Group so all the two were playing for was points (200) and prize money (over $380K).
“I have been practicing well,” Nadal said. “Just probably not enough matches to be at the level that I needed to be. Not enough confidence, probably, after six tough months. That’s how it is. I accept that the season didn’t end the way that I wanted, at least I finished with a positive victory.
“It’s important, the last official match of the season, so I am happy for that. At the end I am happy about that… I was able to win against a great player.”
On Friday, the round-robin wraps up with Djokovic trying to stay undefeated against rival Daniil Medvedev who has been eliminated.
The big match is a winner-take-all between Tsitsipas and Rublev.
Both Djokovic and the Tsitsipas-Rublev winner will have to return Saturday for the semifinals.
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