American Taylor Fritz overcame a tough test from Lloyd Harris on Wednesday to reach the third round of the US Open and continue his dominant summer stretch.
The fourth-seeded Fritz, last year’s US Open runner-up, recovered from dropping the opening set to advance 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-2, 6-4.
He was 0-for-8 on break point opportunities in the first two sets, then converted 5-of-7 in the last two.
“I’ve known Lloyd forever. He’s dangerous because he’s solid from the back,” Fritz said. “He doesn’t make a ton of mistakes, and he has a very good serve, so it’s one of those if you’re not on, it’s very easy to kind of just — I mean, what happened in the first, you know, I had some chances to break. He played well to save the break points.”
Fritz was soon joined in the third round by No. 17 seed Frances Tiafoe, who took down another American, 21-year-old Martin Damm Jr., 6-4, 7-5, 6-7 (8), 7-5.
Tiafoe won 86% of his first serve points and saved all three break points he faced while firing 13 aces to only one double-fault.
“He battled incredibly well,” Tiafoe said of Damm, the son of former tour pro and 2006 US Open doubles champion Martin Damm Sr. “He’s going to be a nightmare for a lot of guys.”
Since the start of 2020, Tiafoe has won 22 US Open matches, second only to Daniil Medvedev (25).
Fritz, meanwhile, is 23-5 since the conclusion of the French Open, the most tour-level wins by anybody on the men’s tour in that span. Right behind him is fellow American Ben Shelton (20-6), who defeated unseeded Pablo Carreno Busta 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 in the second round on Wednesday in the night session at Louis Armstrong.
Fritz and Shelton are battling to be the No. 1-ranked American man at the conclusion of the tournament; with less points to defend, Shelton would have to reach the round of 16 and advance one round beyond Fritz to overtake him in the rankings.
Up next for Fritz is Swiss qualifier Jerome Kym, beat American Brandon Nakashima 4-6, 7-6 (2), 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (8); the 30th seed came up short in his bid to become the fourth man to win multiple deciding-set tiebreaks in a single US Open since they were introduced in 1970.
Another American to fall Wednesday was Marcos Giron, who was on the receiving end of a massive comeback by Benjamin Bonzi on the heels of his eventful first-round win against Medvedev. Bonzi, a 29-year-old Frenchman, rallied from a two-set deficit to eliminate Giron 2-6, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-4.
American Eliot Spizzirri also lost 6-0, 7-6 (3), 2-6, 6-4 to No. 32 seed Luciano Darderi of Italy.
ESPN Research contributed to this report.
