Taylor Fritz’s comeback defeats Andy Murray at the Washington Open, while Jesica Pegula defeats Elina Svitolina
Top-seeded At the rain-drenched Washington Open, Taylor Fritz defeated three-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray 6-7 (2/7), 6-3, 6-4, and went through to the quarterfinals.
After a three-hour struggle, world number nine Fritz, who had just won his sixth ATP championship in Atlanta the previous week, came back to defeat the 44th-ranked British sensation.
The 25-year-old American received a quarterfinal matchup against Australian Jordan Thompson, who defeated Christopher Eubanks 6-2, 6-2 in a different match that was postponed from Thursday due to rain.
Top seed Jessica Pegula defeated Wimbledon semifinalist Elina Svitolina 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the women’s division of the ATP and WTA hardcourt competition.
The fourth-seeded Maria Sakkari of Greece, who won twice on Friday, will be the American’s opponent next. Sakkari defeated Canadian Leylah Fernandez 7-5, 6-2 in a match that was postponed due to rain before defeating US seventh seed Madison Keys 6-3, 6-3.
With a forehand cross-court drop volley winner on the line, Murray, who is 36 years old, got his first break opportunity of the match and broke Fritz to equal the score at 5-5 before moving on to the first set tie-break.
After taking a brief pause to fix a broken shoe, Murray hammered a forehand winner to take a 3-1 lead. He then extended his advantage to 5-2 by taking two more off Fritz’s serve. A forehand victory two points later saw him end the first set.
They fought to a score of 4-4 in the third when Murray smacked a backhand wide and gave up a break. Fritz rallied back to win the second.
In the tenth game, Murray stormed to a 40-0 lead, but Fritz saved three break chances, the latest on his seventeenth ace. On his third opportunity to win, Fritz hammered a forehand winner after Murray thwarted him on the first two match chances.
Murray stated, “Disappointing one to lose because I had my opportunities. “You ought to be winning those games. They were contests that I was used to winning. So, yes, it is irritating at the moment.
PEGULA PUSHES FOR THE WIN
In the sixth game of the final set, Pegula held for a 4-2 advantage after denying Svitolina on five break chances earlier in the set.
After two hours and eight minutes, Pegula progressed with a service winner on her third match point, improving to 3-1 overall versus Svitolina. Svitolina had saved two match opportunities before holding in the ninth game.
‘If I don’t serve this out, it may have been a fast 5-7,’ I thought. Pegula said that I would have probably lost.
Pegula, the 2019 Washington winner and third-ranked player in the world, advanced to her first WTA semifinal since April and sixth overall this year.
Svitolina is making a return after giving birth to a child last year. She just advanced to the quarterfinals of the French Open and defeated top-ranked Iga Swiatek at Wimbledon.
Russian eighth seed Liudmila Samsonova defeated Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk 6-4, 6-2 to advance to the semi-finals, where she will face either US third seed Coco Gauff or Swiss sixth seed Belinda Bencic.
The 2016 Washington winner from France, Gael Monfils, was defeated by Tallon Griekspoor 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 in a match on Thursday that was postponed due to rain. Later on Friday, the Dutchman fought American J.J. Wolf.
Daniel Evans, a ninth-seeded British player, defeated Chinese adolescent Shang Juncheng 6-2, 6-3 to go to the quarterfinals and face second-seeded Frances Tiafoe, a local favorite.
Tiafoe, who has an overall advantage against Evans of 4-2 in their career rivalry, or the Briton will face Bulgarian fifth seed Grigor Dimitrov in the semi-final on Saturday after Ugo Humbert of France had to withdraw due to a leg injury.
