Another day, another heavy effort from the Americans Taylor Fritz.
No one on the tour has won more matches than Fritz since Wimbledon, and the top-ranked American continued the trend on Wednesday as he beat Shanghai champion Valentin Vacherot in a tight battle, 4-6 7-6(4) 7-5, to reach the second round.
Fritz has won 34 games since the start of the grass season and he is showing no signs of slowing down.
On Wednesday night, the top seed battled a valiant effort from the surging Vacherot, who entered the tournament with a career-high ranking of 39 and a tank full of confidence after becoming the first man from his country to win a Masters title just over a week ago in Shanghai.
Fritz said the strong second serve was what impressed him most about Monageque.
“Great service for sure,” said Fritz. “He was almost serving two first serves most of the match. The second serve is huge.
“He made it difficult with how big his second serve was. And he did a really good job of playing defense and not making too many mistakes — he made me work for a lot of points.”
However, Fritz won 10 of 15 points against the second serve in the critical third set as he sealed his 51st win of the season. The American won 25 of his 42 second-serve return points overall on the day.
The 26-year-old Vacherot was riding a nine-match winning streak, including qualifying in Shanghai, where he beat his cousin Arthur Rinderknech in the final to become the lowest-ranked Masters 1000 champion in history. He was dead even with Fritz as he took the second set and came back in the decider to level at 4-4.
Fritz said he was able to take advantage of new balls after Vacherot served to force a tiebreak in the final set, trailing 5-6.
“As we played the match, I started to understand why the (Shanghai) conditions suited him so well,” Fritz said. “I felt like when the balls wore down and it slowed down a lot because the balls got big, I felt like that’s where he controlled me and dominated me more. I felt like obviously in the slower conditions in this match he played a lot better.
“In the last game I was able to break with new balls, I felt like I had more control of the game when it was played a little bit faster.”
Fritz finished with 47 winners to Vacherot’s 38 – both players hit 15 arm winners. The American converted both of his break points in the final set and hit 21 aces during the two-hour, 36-minute match to avoid the upset.
Fritz will face Ugo Humbert, who defeated Sebastian Korda, 6-3, 6-4 on Wednesday.
In other action on Wednesday in Basel, Casper Ruud defeated Quentin Halys 6-1, 7-6(3), Felix Auger-Aliassime topped compatriot Gabriel Diallo 6-2, 7-5 and Botic van de Zandschulp downed Jiri Lehecka 6-2, 6-2.
