Fritz, Basilashvili into semis at Indian Wells
INDIAN WELLS — Taylor Fritz beat No. 3 seed Alexander Zverev 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3) on Friday to reach the semifinals 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.
“I kept fighting,” Fritz said. “The crowd pushing me on meant so much.”
Fritz was the clear favorite at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, where 83-yearold 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’s 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.”
Fritz’s semifinal opponent Saturday is 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 topseeded Daniil Medvedev in three sets.
“This one hurts because
I knew that after Stefanos lost, I was kind of the favorite to win this tournament,” Zverev said, “but my tennis wasn’t there yet.”
Zverev, the gold medalist at the Tokyo Olympics, had been the highest remaining men’s seed in the combined ATP and WTA tour event that was moved to the fall because of the coronavirus pandemic. Upsets knocked out several top players in a tournament that has lacked both its usual crowds and biggest stars, including Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams.