Taylor Fritiz recorded a perfect return to North American hard court swing as he captured Atlanta Open for his second tour-level title this season.
Playing his first tournament on home soil since March, the top seed Fritz overcame Australian Aleksandar Vukic 7-5, 6-7, 6-4 to seal the 250-level silverware. Despite not converting to championship points on return of serve at 6-5 in the second set, the ATP #9 seed put up some solid mental game in the third set decider to close the 2-hour, 16-min.
“I’ve played this tournament five times before and [made] the semis [in 2021] and final [in 2019]. I feel like I’ve always been close so it’s nice, I don’t think I could’ve handled another loss in the final,” Fritz said. “It feels really good to get the job done.”
As usual, the big hitting American used his hefty serve and attacking first-strike brand of tennis to earn the hard-court crown as he was broken just once during the tournament. Fritz bagged 84% of his first-serve points and consistently hit his ground-strokes with conviction to secure the long awaited home title.
A pivotal moment came after the 25-year old earned triple break point a 3-3 in the third set, thanks to his immaculate defense and deep returning which also saw him won a 27-shot rally.
“I felt like today it was like, ‘I’m here to win it and I’d be absolutely devastated with a final result’. Even though a lot of times, being in the final, I’m happy with that,” Fritz said.
Title #6 for @Taylor_Fritz97 🤩@ATLOpenTennis | #AtlantaOpen pic.twitter.com/B7xXsw0dbu
— ATP Tour (@atptour) July 30, 2023
Last year Wimbledon quarter-finalist also had a victorious run in Delray Beach earlier this year and now has six-tour level titles out of which three have come on the American hard courts.
“I just felt so at home and welcomed in Atlanta this week,” Fritz said. “I’ve been coming back here for so many years, so I’m happy to finally get the title. All week, the support was amazing. I’m not from Atlanta, but it felt like I was because the support was just crazy all week long and it felt great.”
With the Atlanta trophy in his kitty, the American #1 also moved to 9th position in the Race to Turin. This standout week in Atlanta will certainly motivate Fritz to repeat his last year run at the Nitto ATP Final where he was a semifinalist.
Vukic, 27 is the former University of Illinois standout who on his way to earn a maiden tour-level championship match eliminated three seeded players. The Australian will now rise 20 places to a new career-high #62 in the ATP rankings on Monday.
“Overall, if someone would have told me that I would make the final here, I would have signed it 1,000 times,” Vukic said. “It’s always bittersweet losing, but you have to take the positives from it, learn from it and keep going.”