ATP Tokyo: New top 10 man Taylor Fritz wins tiebreak final against Tiafoe
Taylor Fritz (ATP No. 11) won the ATP 500 tournament in Tokyo. In the final he defeated compatriot Frances Tiafoe in two tight sets.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit:
Oct 09, 2022, 11:55 am
After almost two hours of play, Fritz won 7:6 (3), 7:6 (2) and thus won his third title this year - his fourth overall. In the spring, the American surprisingly won the Masters event in Indian Wells.
In Tokyo, he celebrated the culmination of a great week against Frances Tiafoe: With his semi-final victory against Denis Shapovalov, Fritz made it clear for the first time that he was in the top 10 in the world from Monday. Now there was the title on top. In the ATP ranking he will now even rise to 8th place.
And that wasn't easy: Tiafoe, crazy enough, had won all of his last 13 tiebreaks!
However, Tiafoe was also close to losing in the first round and had to fend off set balls at 4: 5 and 5: 6.
The victory was definitely deserved for Fritz: He had a total of eight break chances (and used one), Tiafoe only three. So there was only one break ever, and it was very early in the match. In the tie-breaks, Fritz was clearly the better man and pulled away early on.
Taylor Fritz: First Tokyo winner since Sampras
Fritz is the first American winner in Tokyo since Pete Sampras in 1996.
But Frances Tiafoe can also be satisfied with his week, generally with his year 2022. He is in 17th place in the live ranking, also higher than ever.