American tennis star Taylor Fritz admitted he felt he was “too passive” toward the end of the first set versus Andrey Rublev and his goal for the rest of the match was to be more aggressive. In the Cincinnati round-of-16, 11th-seeded Fritz recovered from a set down to beat sixth-seeded Rublev 6-7 (4) 6-2 7-5.
“I felt at times my serve rhythm was going away, but I just didn’t want to go a break down in the second set. I tried to hit some good serves, take some more risks,” Fritz said after his win, per the ATP website.
“I thought at the end of the first I was too passive. So I told myself to take chances [in the second set]. It was a big match. I wasn’t going to let anything really bother me or affect me to where it might affect me to lose the match.
Every time something didn’t go my way, I tried to analyse it and think about what to do next time to try and win the point”.
Fritz recovered to beat Rublev in three sets
Fritz missed out on a chance to win the first set when he didn’t realize a set point on Rublev’s serve in the 10th game.
After saving a set point, Rublev took a 4-0 lead in the tie-break, before realizing his first set point to win a tight opener. Fritz bounced back at the start of the second set as he claimed back-to-back breaks and won five games in a row to open a 5-1 lead.
Fritz missed out on two set points in the seventh game, but routinely served out for the second set in the eighth game. In the third set, Fritz saved three break points in the sixth game, before breaking Rublev in the 11th game for a 6-5 lead.
In the 12th game, Fritz served out for the match to complete a big comeback victory. Fritz plays first-seeded Daniil Medvedev in the Cincinnati quarterfinal.
