Taylor Fritz set himself up for his second hardcourt title on American soil this season with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over J.J. Wolf on Saturday in the semifinals of the Atlanta Open.
The top-seeded Fritz broke Wolf’s serve in the second game of the match then saved two break points the rest of the way while winning the first set. Fritz then broke Wolf again to take a 6-5 lead in the second set before serving out the victory.
“It was really solid; I served well the whole match,” Fritz said, who had 13 aces compared to five for the eighth-seeded Wolf. “Whenever I was in trouble, I played a lot of good points. I just did what I was supposed to do and didn’t really give him much.”
Fritz will take aim at his sixth career title when he faces either No. 7 seed Ugo Humbert of France or Aleksandar Vukic of Australia, who were set to meet in a second semifinal later Saturday.
Fritz heads into the final with a 17-9 record against players ranked in the top 50 this season.
Hamburg European Open
No. 4 seed Alexander Zverev of Germany advanced to the final with an easy 6-2, 6-4 victory over Arthur Fils of France.
It is the first title match for Zverev since May of last year at Madrid and it comes in his hometown. He has 19 career titles. The last German player to win at Hamburg was Michael Stich in 1993.
In the final, Zverev will meet Laslo Djere of Serbia, who was a 6-3, 6-2 winner over China’s Zhizhen Zhang in the other semifinal.
–Field Level Media