Fritz Keeps US Alive With Impressive Win Over De Minaur

Thursday, 21 November 2024 at 14:27

byErik Virostko

Taylor Fritz was able to level the score in the tie against Australia at the 2024 Davis Cup Finals, beating Alex de Minaur in straight sets.

The United States and Australia met in a high-profile quarter-final clash at the 2024 Davis Cup Finals, as both have teams that could go all the way to win the competition, but they were relatively unlucky to be drawn into a star-studded part of the draw.

In the first match of the tie, Thanasi Kokkinakis stunned Ben Shelton with an impressive display, winning the final-set tie-break 16-14 to secure Australia's first point.

That meant the second singles match of the tie was a must-win match for Fritz, who knew what the task at hand was. He joined the American team as the last player, as he competed in the final of the 2024 ATP Finals only a few days ago.

When speaking after his final match in Turin, Fritz admitted that the team wanted him to join their first practice earlier than he could, as he needed rest after the tournament, but there weren't any signs of fatigue in his match against De Minaur.

The Australian also competed at the ATP Finals, but unfortunately for him, his debut didn't go well. He lost all of his matches, including a loss against Fritz.

The American player certainly wanted to follow up on that victory, and he started nearly perfectly, winning 11 of the first 12 rallies to lead 2-0 and 40-0.

Out of nowhere, Fritz almost lost that lead. De Minaur won five consecutive points to have a break point, but Fritz saved the situation to lead 3-0 after three games played.

De Minaur then faced a similar situation a few games later when he lost a 40-0 lead just to face a break point. That was also the last break point of the set, and even though Fritz couldn't convert it, with a one-break advantage, he had everything needed to win the first set 6-3.

After losing the first set, De Minaur had a better start into the second set of the match, breaking for a 2-0 lead. However, he immediately lost that lead and his American opponent made it 2-2 in almost no time.

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The Australian then wasted a chance to break when leading 3-2, but so did his opponent in the following game. In Fritz's case, it was an even bigger chance as he had three consecutive break points, leading 40-0.

He couldn't convert it, but a few games later, he didn't make the same mistake, breaking for a 5-4 lead to set himself up to serve for the match.

He handled it like a champion, winning the match 6-3, 6-4 to level the score of the tie with Australia to 1-1. Now, a doubles match between Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram and Jordan Thompson and Matthew Ebden will decide the tie.

Fritz was aware of the importance of his win, as he didn't want the US team to lose already after two singles matches.

"It was win or go home. Happy to win it! It's huge. We would hate to just go two matches and be out of here. There was a lot obviously riding on that one. I'm just really happy with how I held it together."