Paul Outlasts Fritz In Physical Marathon To Reach Acapulco Final, De Minaur Upsets Rune

Good friends and American compatriots Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz played one of the best matches of the season last night in the Acapulco quarters. Paul came out ahead 6-3, 6-7(2), 7-6(2) in 3 hours, 25 minutes.

Paul, who had a match point in the second, was already struggling physically. Down an early break, Paul’s cramped kicked up as Fritz moved ahead and seemed destined to return to the final. But Fritz, who had chances to go up two breaks, couldn’t finish the deal.

Long games and long rallies marked the third set. Paul would find his way back to level, then held match points with Fritz serving 5-6. The American No. 1 would force the tiebreaker but was visibly in distress. Before the first point, Fritz would need a bucket to catch his vomit, and then he began cramping.

Paul, still struggling with his own cramps, ran off the first five points and hung on to reach the biggest final of his career, his first at the ATP 500 level.

“I couldn’t be happier,” Paul told the ATP. “Obviously looking forward to making the body feel a little better tomorrow. The goal for this year was to get the ranking up and get more trophies. I only have one trophy on Tour between singles and doubles.

“You don’t get trophies unless you’re in the final, and hopefully I can play another good match tomorrow and get the winner’s trophy.

“You have to. It’s never going to be easy against Fritz, he’s unreal,” he said. “He doesn’t give you any points throughout the whole match, you feel like you have to work for everything.

“Obviously he got up a break in the third there and it was weird, I started feeling my body a little bit and doing some weird serves, and I don’t know if he loved it. And then I think something happened with his stomach too. I think I got a little lucky there that we were both struggling, not just me.”

The Australian Open semifinal will now face an Australian in the final. Alex De Minaur upended Holger Rune rallying from a set down to win it 3-6, 7-5, 6-2. The match finished just before 3am local time.

Up a set, Rune had multiple break chances to go up 4-3 in the second.

De Minaur leads Paul having won all three of their tour-level head-to-head clashes most recently in the 2022 Eastbourne quarterfinals.

De Minaur will have to get his clock back in sync after the late finish while Paul will have to re-energize after his marathon win. The final is set for 9pm local time.

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