Fritz overpowers Kyrgios in Cincinnati
Sports
Taylor Fritz beat Nick Kyrgios 6-3, 6-2 on Wednesday to reach the Cincinnati Open third round.
CINCINNATI (Reuters) - Taylor Fritz blasted his way to a 6-3, 6-2 win over Australian Nick Kyrgios on Wednesday and a place in the Cincinnati Open third round.
In a clash of big servers, it was the American number one who came out on top, sending down 16 aces against a misfiring Kyrgios who hit just seven and offset most of those with six double faults.
The 11th-seeded Fritz needed just 51 minutes to condemn Australian Kyrgios to his second defeat since losing to Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon final.
Such was Fritz s domination on serve that Kyrgios could not muster a single break opportunity the entire match while the 24-year-old American converted three of his seven chances.
"It feels great to have my game come together today," said Fritz. "That’s the kind of match I really needed to give me a lot of confidence going into the next match, going to the U.S. Open, a lot of things are clicking for sure."
Fritz will next meet Russian sixth seed Andrey Rublev who ground out a 6-7(7) 7-6(3) 6-2 win over Italy s Fabio Fognini.
Fourth-seeded Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas sailed into the third round with a business like 6-3 6-4 victory over Serbian Filip Krajinovic while eighth-seeded Pole Hubert Hurkacz, runner-up in Montreal on Sunday, lost to his doubles partner this week, big-hitting American John Isner, 7-6(5) 6-7(5) 6-2.
It was a good day for Canada with both seventh seed Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov picking up victories.
Auger-Aliassime cruised past Australian Alex de Minaur 6-3 6-2 while Shapovalov rallied for 3-6 6-4 6-3 win over in-form American Tommy Paul to register back-to-back victories for the first time since May.
In an all-British clash, ninth seed Cameron Norrie fought back to beat former world number one Andy Murray 3-6 6-3 6-4.
