Taylor Fritz hopes of ending this season on a high took a huge step with a hard-earned opening victory Monday at the Rolex Shanghai Masters.
The 26-year-old American kept his cool in the face of a free-spirited performance from Terence Atmane to secure a 7-6(4), 7-6(5) win at the Chinese ATP Masters 1000 in two-hour, three-minute under the roof inside Qizhong Forest Sports City Arena.
“I don’t want to speak too soon, but I think I’m in a good position,” said Fritz. “I’m not thinking so much about the goal of reaching the finals right now, because I’m fifth in the Race. If the goal is that and I get panicky, it would be like, ‘Let’s just not slip four spots’. My goal right now is to finish the year in the Top 5, keep my place. I think that’s just a better mindset to have, both to qualify for the finals and play good tennis for the rest of the year.”
The US Open finalist Fritz remains fifth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin and is in a strong position to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals, where he made his debut in 2022.
Fritz’s next assignment in Shanghai will be a third-round clash on Tuesday against Yosuke Watanuki.
Elsewhere, Another Top 10 star and Turin hopeful, Grigor Dimitrov, also completed victory Monday in a rain-affected second-round clash.
The Bulgarian led Zizou Bergs 6-3, 2-4 when their meeting was suspended on Saturday, and upon resumption he battled to a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 triumph.
He will hope to build on his good start in Shanghai when he takes on Alexei Popyrin in the third round.
Another member of the chasing pack in the Live Race, the 14th-placed Frances Tiafoe, made a solid start to his Shanghai campaign.
The 13th seed prevailed 6-2, 6-4 against #NextGenATP home favourite Zhou Yi. It was a first win in Shanghai since 2017 for Tiafoe, who will next play Roman Safiullin.
The World No. 61 Safiullin upset 23rd seed Alexander Bublik 6-4, 6-2 in a match moved to an indoor court because of the rain.
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