After a two-day weather-related delay, No. 7 seed Taylor Fritz finally took to the court Monday and responded with a challenging victory over French qualifier Terence Atmane at the Rolex Shanghai Masters.
Resuming Saturday’s second-round match at 4-3 in the first set, Fritz finished off a 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5) win in a little over two hours of actual playing time.
“Definitely happy with how I played, but I wouldn’t necessarily say I felt like I had everything under control, because he was serving big and firing off a lot of winners,” Fritz said after the match. “I thought he played really well, and if I wasn’t on top of my game … I definitely could have lost that match. I just stayed with it and played solid in a lot of the big moments.”
The match was one of several delayed by rain from Saturday until Monday. Also among delayed matches Monday, ninth-seeded Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria defeated Belgium’s Zizou Bergs 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, and No. 12 Holger Rune of Denmark survived a tough match against Italian Matteo Berrettini ,4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
“It’s tough to get ready three days in a row to play a match, and not even be sure if you’re actually going to play,” Fritz told reporters after Monday’s match. “So it was great to know that today was happening.”
The U.S. Open finalist — who will next face Japanese qualifier Yosuke Watanuki — joined two other Americans with victories Monday.
No. 13 Frances Tiafoe ended hopes for the home crowd with a 6-2, 6-4 win over China’s Zhou Yi. Tiafoe converted three of his four break chances.
“(Zhou) played a good match. Obviously it seemed pretty one-sided, but the second set was very tough,” said Tiafoe, who next faces Russia’s Roman Safiullin, who resumed his second-round meeting with No. 23 Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan at 2-1 in the first set to finish him off 6-4, 6-2.
Fellow American Marcos Giron fired eight aces and did not drop his serve in beating No. 24 Karen Khachanov of Russia 6-4, 6-3. Prior to the Shanghai Masters, Giron had only one victory under his belt in eight tries at the Masters 1000 level this season. He now has three and could add a fourth if he gets past his next opponent, David Goffin of Belgium, who beat No. 15 Lorenzo Musetti of Italy 1-6, 7-6 (6), 6-2.
Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands made an easy day of it with a 6-3, 6-2 win over No. 26 seed Jordan Thompson of Australia, while No. 28 Flavio Cobolli of Italy finished off the night with a grueling two-and-a-half-hour win, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (4), 6-3, over veteran Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland.
–Field Level Media
