欧博娱乐Taylor Fritz makes American tennis history aft
Taylor Fritz clinched a special feat after overcoming Jiri Lehecka in a gruelling Round of 16 contest at the Canadian Open.
The match saw all three sets be decided by a tie-break and neither player lose a service game.
Fritz had to dig deep as he miraculously saved nine break points en route to securing a 7-6 (7-4) 6-7 (7-5) 7-6 (7-5) win.
The American second seed's victory on Sunday evening (August 3) clocked in at just a minute shy of three hours and also saw him nail 16 aces along the way.
Fritz will now face sixth seed, Andrey Rublev, on Tuesday (August 5), in the last-eight of the ATP Masters 1000 event.
Rublev got the better of Fritz in the pair's last meeting at the 2024 Madrid Open semi-final.
📲 Follow The Sporting News on WhatsApp
American tennis history made in the Canadian capital
Getty
A quarter-final appearance in Toronto for Fritz means he has now reached the final eight stage of all nine Masters 1000 tournaments on the ATP Tour.
This makes the 27-year-old the first American and non-European player to fulfil the achievement. Altogether he now has 14 quarter-final appearances at ATP 1000 events.
Fritz' biggest success at this level came three years ago at Indian Wells, where he beat Rafael Nadal to win his first Masters 1000 title.
Since winning at Indian Wells, Fritz has failed to add another 1000 event win to his resume, but he has reached a semi-final at this level of tournament in each year since.
Earlier this year he reached the last four of the Miami Masters, where he was knocked out by eventual winner, Jakub Mensik.
With the top ranked players from the men's game such as Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic not competing in Toronto, Fritz will fancy his chances of creating more special memories and winning his second Masters 1000 title.
Tennis news and related links