Taylor Fritz, pushed to his outer limits by Spanish qualifier Jaume Munar, needed a third-set tiebreaker to escape with a 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(2) victory Tuesday before an appreciative hometown crowd at the BNP Paribas Open.
The 20th seed became the fourth American to reach the fourth round, joining Jenson Brooksby, John Isner and Reilly Opelka.
The two-hour, 48-minute match was a dead heat until that final frame, when Fritz hit his best shot of the day – a sizzling, pristine backhand from a neutral position – to take a 2/1 lead in the tie-break. Two forehand errors by Munar gave him an insurmountable three-point cushion. Fritz finished emphatically with an unreturned serve and a clean ace, his 11th of the match.
Fritz will play 29th seed Alex de Minaur, a 7-6(2), 6-4 winner over Tommy Paul, on Wednesday.
“It’s always really tough playing Demon,” Fritz said of de Minaur. “He’s really tough to play. He wins a lot of points that are pretty frustrating just by how many balls he gets back. I only got my first win on him ever the most recent time we played at US Open. Going to be a lot less pressure going into this match than the other two because I know I’m going to have to play really well.
“What I did to beat him at the Open is still pretty fresh in my mind. I think I have a pretty good idea of what I need to do.”
FOLLOW THIS WEEK’S ACTION
📺 TV Schedule
🎾 Watch Live On Tennis TV
📱 Follow Live Scores On ATP Tour App
📧 Sign Up For Newsletters
It’s a nice result for Fritz, but he’s got some work to do if he wants to equal or surpass his best effort at Indian Wells. Last year, Fritz played his way into the semi-finals, beating Matteo Berrettini, Jannik Sinner and Alexander Zverev. He followed that up with a career-best fourth-round berth at this year’s Australian Open.
Can Fritz possibly go deeper here than last year?
“Yeah, absolutely,” he said. “I mean, I am a better player than when I came here last year. Didn’t play bad today, but there’s things I absolutely need to do a lot better. Hopefully being on the court for almost three hours today helps me. I think I’ll be feeling pretty good timing-wise hitting the ball.”
Kudos to the World No. 99 Munar, who was playing his fifth match of the event. The 24-year-old saved three match points in his second-round win over Pablo Carreno Busta. Against Fritz, he defended well and only faded at the very end.
Watch Highlights
When de Minaur’s second service game went to eight deuces – and five saved break points – he knew he was in for another gut-check match. This time, he survived Paul in straight sets, finishing with a thumping overhead.
De Minaur, the No. 1-ranked Australian, cooled off Paul, who had already notched three quarter-final runs in 2022 and a semi-final in Delray Beach.
“He had a lot of chances, I had a lot of chances, but I’m extremely happy that it ended up going my way,” de Minaur said in his on-court interview. “This was one of those matches where end of last year I would have lost, and now I’m feeling a lot better on court. I’m being a lot more positive, just fighting every point, just happy to be back.”
De Minaur, with 22 winners and 25 unforced errors, was simply more efficient than Paul (23, 33).
“Look, I’m not going to lie,” de Minaur said. “I’d much rather a 6-0, 6-0 [win] in 40 minutes, but it’s the art of the game. It’s another day, it’s another round I’m alive for. Happy to be in another fourth round, hopefully we can go a little bit further this time.”
Last season, de Minaur advanced to the last 16, but fell there to Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Another American, 23rd seed Isner, also advanced to the Round of 16 in the California desert. The home favourite rode his serve to 7-5, 6-3 victory against 14th seed Diego Schwartzman.
The Argentine is one of the best returners on the ATP Tour, but he has failed to break Isner’s serve in the five sets they have played (Isner leads their ATP Head2Head series 2-0). The American hit 13 aces and did not face a break point on Tuesday inside Stadium 1.
Isner will next try to reach the Indian Wells quarter-finals for the first time since 2014, when he made the semi-finals. The 36-year-old will play 31st seed Alexander Bublik or former World No. 3 Grigor Dimitrov.
Source Tennis – ATP World Tour
