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By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday March 26, 2023

 
Taylor Fritz

The top-ranked American scored a relatively routine victory over Denis Shapovalov to reach the round of 16 in Miami.

Photo Source: TTV

Top-ranked Taylor Fritz continues to produce big-time wins with regularity in 2023.

The 10th-ranked American took down longtime rival Denis Shapovalov on Sunday, 6-4, 6-4, calmly weathering the Canadian’s all-or-nothing ground game without facing a single break point to achieve his 19th victory of the season.

Fritz is into the round of 16 for the third straight year in Miami - he has never been further.

Tennis Express

“I held serve well,” Fritz said. “I was able to steal a break in both sets and that’s all I really needed.”

Fritz said he needed to change his game plan against Shapovalov. Instead of looking for his forehand early and often in rallies, and attacking the 23-year-old’s second serve, he was forced to read and react against the Canadian’s aggression.


“I couldn’t really find that attacking forehand because he was hitting the ball so hard, and he was serving his second serve so big, so it turned into more ‘Just make balls,’” Fritz said. “When he was putting the ball in the court, I couldn’t be aggressive off that.”

Thanks to 34 unforced errors from Shapovalov, Fritz didn’t really need to. The American hit 13 winners against 18 unforced and it was more than enough to earn a fourth career win against the former Miami semifinalist.

Fritz will face 8th-ranked Rune for the first time in the round of 16. The Danish teen eased past Diego Schwartzman on Sunday to reach the sweet 16 on his Miami main draw debut.

 

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