Taylor Fritz produced a moment of brilliance to deny British wild card Alastair Gray a point he would have deservedly earned during their second-round match at Wimbledon.
Gray was granted a wild card for his main draw debut at a Grand Slam. He arrived in London ranked at a career-high of World No. 288. He has won four titles on the ITF circuit, where he predominantly plays his tennis.
But he was finally given a taste of what it feels like for any aspiring tennis player: the experience of competing in a Grand Slam main draw. And Gray grabbed that opportunity with both hands as he scored the biggest win of his career on debut a couple of days ago.
He defeated Chun Hsin Tseng of Chinese Taipei to reach the second round, where he played the experienced Taylor Fritz. The American was coming off a title win on grass at Eastbourne, and he was one of the contenders for Wimbledon this year.
And he backed up that notion with a commanding first-round win over Lorenzo Msuetti in straight sets. Fritz was the heavy favorite to beat the home wild card in the second round, but Gray, who is only 24, showed flashes of his talent to the British public.
In every set, Gray conjured the first break point and also broke first in the second and third sets. However, Fritz was undeterred by the home fans cheering for their player and coolly advanced into the third round of the 2022 Wimbledon after two hours and six minutes.
The most interesting moment for the home fans came in the tie-break of the second set when their player got closest to winning a set. Despite losing his serve twice in the tie-break and being 3-6 down, it looked like he might get one of the mini-breaks to keep the set alive.
After a short rally, Gray stepped to the net to finish a stop volley, thinking he had won the point, and began celebrating as the camera panned to show him raising his fist. But the ball was within reach of Friz, who dived and got a racket on it to push it over the net and clinch the set.
0 Comments