By Erik Gudris | @ATNTennis | Wednesday, August 3, 2022
American men including Taylor Fritz, J.J. Wolf and Frances Tiafoe enjoyed wins in Washington D.C. on Wednesday.
Photo credit: Rob Carr/Getty
American men enjoyed home crowd support amid hot conditions in the second round of this week’s Citi Open in Washington D.C.
Top ranked American Taylor Fritz enjoyed a rather straightforward 6-4, 6-3 win over Australia’s Alexei Popyrin.
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Fritz earned a late service break in each set against the Australian and then saved two break points in the final game before closing out the win. Fritz continues his hunt for a third title this season having won at Indian Wells and Eastbourne earlier this year.
“I felt pretty good. I played a pretty solid match,” Fritz said afterwards. “You know, there are some things that I could do better, but after, you know, kind of being in a boot for a couple of weeks, not playing too much, then kind of starting up again last week, and also coming in the tournament not really sure how my foot was going to feel, like I have to be really happy with how it felt and how I played.
"Considering the preparation leading in, I felt it was a really solid match.”
Fritz next faces No. 16 seed Daniel Evans of Great Britain.
The upset of the day belonged to American J.J. Wolf who has just entered the ATP top 100 rankings. Wolf battled through a meeting of his fellow 23-year old Denis Shapovalov before prevailing 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-3.
Wolf ultimately proved more successful on both his first and second serves in the match as he notched a strong 81 percent win rate on his first serve.
Wolf next faces No. 9 seed Holger Rune for a place in the quarterfinals.
In the evening session, local favorite and No. 10 seed Frances Tiafoe got past wildcard Christopher Eubanks 6-3, 7-6(2).
Afterward, Tiafoe talked about what it would mean to win his hometown event.
“Huge. I mean, I think the closer, closer you get to the business end of the week, I think big points, big opportunities," Tiafoe said. "Playing here in D.C., honestly, I mean, it could be if it was a 250 or whatever, it's here in D.C., 500, I mean, to win this tournament would mean the world to me.
"I have been coming to this tournament since I was four years old. To have my name around the stadium would mean a lot to me.”
In the second night match, unseeded Nick Kyrgios took care of No. 14 seed Tommy Paul 6-3, 6-4.
The biggest upset of the day belonged to Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori who took out No. 2 seed Hubert Hurkacz 6-4, 7-6(3).