Alex de Minaur and Taylor Fritz boosted their Nitto ATP Finals qualification probabilities on Tuesday on the Kinoshita Group Japan Open Tennis Championships, the place they each earned first-round wins.
Australian De Minaur got here by means of a hard-fought battle towards British lefty Jack Draper, advancing 4-6, 7-6(4), 7-6(1) in three hours and 4 minutes.
De Minaur rallied from a break down within the second set and broke qualifier Draper’s serve when the 21-year-old was attempting to shut out the match at 5-4 within the third set. The World No. 13 locked in from the baseline and began to tug the tiring Draper from nook to nook to enhance to 13-4 in opening-round matches this yr.
“I think whenever someone is struggling at the end it makes it much harder to finish off,” De Minaur mentioned. “Because you can’t focus on what you want to and you just try to make him play as many balls as possible and then he was just playing free. I think this match was won on attitude and fitness. Happy to get the win and still be alive.”
De Minaur, who now leads Draper 2-0 within the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Headvert collection, is thirteenth within the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin on 2,515 factors. He is 595 factors behind eighth-placed Holger Rune, who occupies the ultimate qualification spot.
Chasing his second title of the season, De Minaur will want a deep run in Tokyo to additional enhance his possibilities of making his debut on the prestigious year-end occasion. If his direct rivals above him (Tommy Paul twelfth, Hubert Hurkacz eleventh, Casper Ruud tenth, Taylor Fritz ninth), fall early, De Minaur might climb to ninth by lifting the trophy. The fourth seed will subsequent face Diego Schwartzman after the Argentine earned his 250th tour-level win.
Schwartzman produced a rock-solid show to down countryman Francisco Cerundolo 6-4, 6-1 in a single hour and 21 minutes, backing up his run to the fourth-round in Shanghai final week.
Photo Credit: ATP Tour
Top seed Fritz adopted De Minaur onto court docket and moved previous Cameron Norrie 6-4, 6-3 within the newest chapter of the pair’s long-running Lexus ATP Head2Headvert rivalry.
The American is the defending champion on the ATP 500 hard-court occasion and made a rapid begin to his title defence, firing 13 aces in a robust serving efficiency to advance after one hour and 21 minutes. Fritz now leads Norrie 7-6, with all 13 conferences approaching onerous courts.
“It was really close to lose the first set. I was thinking it was going to be a three-setter,” Fritz mentioned. “I was lucky to get the break back in the first and then I felt my level picked up and I started playing a lot more smoothly.”
Fritz is 4 locations above De Minaur in ninth within the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, 145 factors behind Rune. The 25-year-old, who reached the semi-finals on debut in Turin final yr, is one in every of 5 gamers to earn greater than 50 wins this yr, together with his victory towards Norrie his 52nd.
Fritz will subsequent meet Japanese wild card Shintaro Mochizuki.
In different motion, Cristian Garin beat Japan wild card Sho Shimabukuro 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, whereas Alexei Popyrin upset Karen Khachanov 6-4, 6-2.
Source: www.atptour.com