Taylor Fritz on Friday beat No. 3 seed Alexander Zverev 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7/3) to reach the semi-finals of the BNP Paribas Open in front of a hometown crowd, scoring the biggest win of his young career.
Fritz rallied from a 5-2 deficit in the third set by winning four of five games — when Zverev held two match points — to force the tiebreaker.
He raced to a 6-1 lead and won it on his third match point when Zverev’s forehand landed beyond the baseline.
Photo: AP
“I kept fighting,” Fritz said. “The crowd pushing me on meant so much.”
Victoria Azarenka defeated Jelena Ostapenko 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 to reach today’s women’s singles final, where she is to try to become the first woman to win the tournament three times.
The former world No. 1 won in 2012 and 2016.
Photo: AFP
Azarenka rallied from a set and a break down.
Ostapenko held three break points to try to send the match to a tiebreak in the third, but Azarenka’s serve stayed steady until the end and helped her close out the win.
“Can you be more brave than that?” Azarenka said about saving a break point leading 6-5. “I was thinking in my head, I’m going to use one drop shot. I chose the perfect timing.”
Paula Badosa defeated No. 12 Ons Jabeur 6-3, 6-3 in 81 minutes, the fourth top-20 player Badosa has defeated at the tournament.
The Spaniard reached her second career WTA Tour final.
Fritz was the clear favorite at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, where 83-year-old Hall of Famer Rod Laver looked on.
Fritz, the 23-year-old son of retired top-10 player Kathy May, grew up in the San Diego area and attended the tournament as a youngster.
Fritz had five previous wins over top-10 players in 2019, including No. 5 Dominic Thiem at the Laver Cup.
Now, he has bagged his biggest by beating Zverev, ranked fourth in the world.
“This is the farthest I’ve ever been in a big tournament,” said Fritz, who won his first ATP Tour title at Eastbourne in 2019. “It’s easily the best win of my life, against a really tough opponent on arguably the biggest match I could possibly play, so it’s great.”
Fritz’s semi-final opponent was 29th-seeded Nikoloz Basilashvili, who outlasted No. 2 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.
The other semi features No. 21 Cameron Norrie against No. 23 Grigor Dimitrov, who earlier knocked out top-seeded Daniil Medvedev in three sets.
The men’s singles semi-finals were to be played after press time last night.
“This one hurts because I knew that after Stefanos lost, I was kind of the favorite to win this tournament, but my tennis wasn’t there yet,” Zverev said.
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