November 22, 2024
Taylor Fritz has reached the Australian Open quarter-finals for the first time on Sunday after overcoming World No. 7 Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-6(3), 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 to earn his maiden Top 10 win at a major.
The 26-year-old American had lost all of his 11 previous meetings against Top 10 players at Slams, including a fourth-round defeat against Tsitsipas in Melbourne in 2022.
“I trusted my shots a lot. I served well the whole match,” Fritz said. “It kept me in it as there were some games he was in that I could get out of with my serve. At the end when I really needed it, I turned it up a level and played some of my best tennis to finish it.”
Fritz, who is making his eighth appearance at the Australian Open, will meet Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals.
Earlier, Novak Djokovic dominated Adrian Mannarino 6-0, 6-0, 6-3 on Sunday to cruise into the Australian Open quarter-finals.
“I played great, from the first to the last point”, Djokovic said after the game.
Djokovic is now tied with Roger Federer for the most Grand Slam quarter-finals with 58 following his recent win.
Meanwhile, Jannik Sinner was forced to disconnect cruise control on his Australian Open campaign Sunday, but his gritty straight-sets 6-4, 7-5, 6-3 win over Karen Khachanov only further confirmed that he is a serious title contender at Melbourne Park.
Sinner will next play the winner of Andrey Rublev (whom he leads 4-2 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series) and Alex de Minaur (6-0).
Andrey Rublev extended his perfect start to the season to 8-0 after overcoming World No. 10 Alex de Minaur and clinching his 300th match win after a 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-0 victory in front of a fiercely patriotic home crowd in a five-set thriller at the Australian Open Sunday night.
Rublev snapped a five-match losing streak against Top 10 opponents and now will look to convert his 10th Grand Slam quarter-final into his first major semi-final when he meets fourth seed Jannik Sinner Tuesday.
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