By Richard Pagliaro | Saturday, March 19, 2022
Taylor Fritz broke in the final game of both sets stopping Andrey Rublev 6-4, 7-5 to become the first American man to reach the Indian Wells final in 10 years.
Photo credit: Getty
Taylor Fritz shrunk safe space in tennis paradise to continue his declarative dream run.
Ripping returns with menace, Fritz broke in the final game of both sets stopping Andrey Rublev 6-4, 7-5 to advance to the Indian Wells final.
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The 24-year-old Fritz snapped Rublev’s 13-match winning streak becoming the first American man since John Isner a decade ago to reach the BNP Paribas Open final.
fritz came out firing his forehand, frequently beat Rublev to the punch and showed more competitive calm as the Russian smashed his racket off his knee and beat his right fist bloody punching his strings.
It all added up to Fritz's third win in five meetings vs. Rublev as the 20th-seeded American improved to 4-0 against Top 10 opponents in Indian Wells.
“Today I definitely played my best match of the tournament so far,” Fritz told Andrew Krasny afterward. “I was so much more aggressive from the ground, so much more solid with my groundstrokes. Whereas other matches where I was maybe playing a bit safter I kind of tried to take it to him and impose my game today and I did it well so that helped a lot.
“It's just unreal it doesn’t even seem real just try to take in the moment regroup and comeback for the finals it’s a dream come true.”
The southern California native, who grew up attending the tournament as a kid, will try to realize the dream in tomorrow’s final when he takes on either 21-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal or Spanish phenom Carlos Alcaraz in the final. Fritz is bidding to become the first American man to hoist the Indian Wells title trophy since Andre Agassi in 2001.
Rublev carried an impressive 18-2 record into today's semifinals with his last loss on Valentine's Day, but Fritz gave him immediate grief, and a taste of the jolting returns to come, breaking in the Russian's opening service game.
Fritz used the surprise serve-and-volley winner to back up the break and go up 3-0 after 12 minutes.
Afterward Rublev said Fritz's balance off both wings is unsettling and shrinks safe space to hit.
"first of all, he have a huge, huge serve, which gives him a lot of advantage," Rublev said. "And on top of that, he have a good strokes from both sides forehand and backhand. If he stay on the ball and he hit really hard and he hit like really with a good percentage.
"And it's tough to play when one player, he have both sides, more or less solid, both sides aggressive, so you need to try to raise your level as well because if you just will push the ball, he will hit winners."
Throttling returns that sometimes left the powerful Russian lunging for replies, Fritz earned three break points in the sixth game. Rublev withstood the stress—and a pair of double faults—pumping a 123 mph ace down the T cap an 11-minute hold for 2-4.
Frustration fueled self-flagellation in Rublev. After missing backhand return, the Russian slammed his Head racquet off his knee five times in a row as he walked toward his court-side seat down 2-5.
Turning his attention toward beating the ball rather than his body, Rublev rolled a backhand winner down the line that helped him earn double break point. The Dubai champion cracked another return right off the baseline breaking back in the ninth game.
Serving to force the tiebreaker, Rublev repelled a pair of set points only to scatter a forehand to face a third set point.
Fritz had success whipping returns right down the middle denying the Russian access to angles and when Rublev flattened a forehand into net, Fritz snatched the opening set on the break. Rublev belted a ball high into the sky, punched his racket strings repeatedly drawing blood from his right knuckles and berated himself after a 22-unforced error opening set.
The server held strong throughout the second set until both men threatened late in the set.
The seventh-ranked Russian earned a pair of break points in the ninth game but narrowly missed a backhand pass down the line on the second break point.
Given a reprieve, Fritz rolled with it rapping a 98 mph forehand winner down the line and flaming his fifth ace for 5-4.
Drawn into net where he’s vulnerable, Rublev soared for a high backhand volley then made a sensational stab volley to draw even at 30-all.
On the next point, Rublev wacked a forehand sitter long to face match point. Fritz, who had clutched at his ankle, slashed a backhand winner down the line to seal it in one hour, 50 minutes and charge into his first Masters 1000 final.
"on that match point, I mean, I kind of like tweaked my ankle the game before on my serve and it wasn't really hurting once I got started with the point, I felt like, but it was really bothering me on the push-off step trying to return serve," Fritz said. "So I didn't know how many more looks I would get. I felt like returning a first serve would be really rough for me just because of the pain when I was pushing off that game. So if anything, I want to say it helped me because it forced me to be aggressive.
After missing the backhand down the line earlier, Fritz felt odds shift in his favor on match point.
"I told myself that because of what's going on I kind of just have to take a shot here and I really trust my backhand line return," Fritz said. "I missed definitely one, maybe two of 'em, prior in the match and, honestly, that gave me even more, it sounds stupid but gave me more confidence to go for it there because I can't think of a time when I take that second serve backhand line, I can't think of a time where I missed it like three or four times in a row, so I figured go for it again and probably make it."