He was bloodied – and nearly beaten – but Taylor Fritz loves to battle and he showed his true colors on Monday night in Perth as he saved a match point to win a riveting battle with Spain’s Jaume Munar at United Cup.
The world No.9 notched a 7-6(4), 3-6, 7-6(6) in three hours and 14 minutes to put USA on the level with Spain after Coco Gauff fell to Jessica Bouzas Maneiro.
“It was a crazy match,” Fritz said. “I thought Jaume played very well. I felt I was in a lot of his service games but he played so well on so many of the big points.
Fritz had to make a pit stop with a foot that was bleeding through his sock, at 4-4 in the final set. He got the foot bandaged and return to battle it out in a tense affair with the Spaniard, who saved a pair of match points at 5-6 to get to a tiebreak.
It was a scintillating battle, and Fritz was relieved to get past Munar, who kept fighting through his service games as Fritz frequently knocked on the door at 30-all.
“There was a lot of opportunities in that match for me, a lot of 30-alls and deuces on his serve,” Fritz said. “I felt like I was in a lot of service games and he played well on so many of those big points.
“It was really tough, really physical.”
Fritz faced a match point at 5-6 in the tiebreak, and rained down a service winner.
He won the final three points to finally finish off Munar.
Coco Gauff and Christian Harrison are facing Cervantes and Cavalle-Reimers in the decing doubles tilt.
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