Fritz Lands Milestone In Chardy Upset

Rising teenager Taylor Fritz will make his Top 100 debut in the Emirates ATP Rankings after upsetting No. 8 seed Jeremy Chardy 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in the opening round of the Abierto Mexicano Telcel event in Acapulco on Tuesday. The victory marked the 18-year-old American qualifier’s second Top 30 win in two weeks, having defeated 29^th-ranked countryman Steve Johnson en route to his first ATP World Tour final in Memphis last week.

“Yeah, it feels amazing to have that consistency, to show I didn’t just do it that one time, to come back and do it again,” Fritz said. “I felt like the first set I played a really great game in the very first game to break. He has a really big first serve and I made a lot of solid returns that game and kind of caught him a little off guard. I was able to serve well enough to hold serve throughout the set.

“Second set, I definitely had my chances to break but didn’t come up on the big points. He did … And the third set, I played about the best game I possibly good to get the early break. I played a lot of good shots.”

Fritz withstood 12 aces from the Frenchman but was more effective on break points, landing four of his five opportunities. He will face Victor Estrella Burgos of the Dominic Republic next, a player 17 years his senior.

Fritz will surpass fellow 18 year old, Alexander Zverev, as the youngest player in the Top 100 of the Emirates ATP Rankings by six months.

“It’s amazing. I’ve wanted to be a tennis player my whole life,” he said. “Being in the Top 100 puts things in perspective. I’m here and I only want to keep going up. This is a huge milestone for me.”

Fritz’s countryman, fellow qualifier Ryan Harrison, also pulled off an upset in his first-round clash, taking down No. 3 seed Marin Cilic 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 in one hour and 46 minutes. Harrison clinched four of his five break point opportunities to see off the World No. 12. Cilic led the pair’s FedEx ATP Head2Head series 2-0 and was coming off a runner-up appearance in Marseille where he fell to Nick Kyrgios. 

Russian Dimitry Tursunov had a narrow 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 win over Sam Groth in just under two hours. The 33 year old withstood 24 aces from the Australian, but managed to break four times.

He will next meet fourth seed Dominic Thiem, who posted a 7-6(3), 6-3 win over Bosnian Damir Dzumhur. The Austrian, making his tournament debut, broke on five of 16 opportunities in the one-hour, 37-minute clash.

Alexandr Dolgopolov edged past Steve Johnson 7-5, 7-6(4) in one hour and 24 minutes. The Ukrainian had lost his only prior FedEx Head2Head meeting with the American but landed 11 aces and saved all five break points he faced to reach the second round. Dolgopolov awaits the winner of top seed David Ferrer and Australian John Millman next.

Brit Aljaz Bedene advanced 6-4, 1-2 after Croat Ivo Karlovic retired at the 48-minute mark. Bedene will face Robin Haase in the second round.