ATP Masters Indian Wells: Taylor Fritz in the footsteps of Andy Roddick
After all, with Taylor Fritz there is an American in the semifinals of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Indian Wells. It's been a long time since the last home win.
by Jens Huiber
last edit: Mar 19, 2022, 07:40 am
Last fall, Taylor Fritz received a nice gift from Alexander Zverev, who laid out a red carpet for the American in the quarterfinals of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Indian Wells. say some. Others point out that Fritz simply took advantage of the opportunities that Zverev offered him in the one-time autumn edition of the "fifth major". So it was all the more disappointing that Nikoloz Basilashvili was eliminated in the semi-finals.
With the three-set win against Miomir Kecmanovic, Fritz has now made it into the last four again this year. And so to a certain extent drew level with Andy Roddick. He had also reached the semi-finals in consecutive years in 2009 and 2010. In 2010 even there sEndspiel, where Roddick lost against Ivan Ljubicic. Before that, from an American perspective, Mardy Fish had failed on Novak Djokovic (2008) and James Blake on Roger Federer (2006) only in the final match.
The last home win dates back to 2001, when it was clear even before the final that the winner would be colored by local color: Andre Agassi defeated Pete Sampras 7:6 (5), 7:5 and 6:1, in times when the champion in Indian Wells was still determined in best-of-five format (which was then only the case in 2005 and 2006).
Fritz demanded of Rublev
So what are the chances of Taylor Fritz hitting the big time? Well: not bad at all. Taylor Fritz has played four times against Andrey Rublev , the record is balanced. The American got the last encounter in Paris-Bercy quite safely, as did that in 2018 in Indian Wells. However: Rublev is currently on a really good run, the quarter-final win against Grigor Dimitrov was the 13th match win in a row. During this series, the Russian has clinched the titles in Marseille and Dubai.
"I have to play a lot more solidly from the baseline," explained Fritz in a preview of the meeting with Rublev. So far in all matches he has gotten away with not going full on every ball from the baseline. With Rublev there is no doubt that he must now. As certainly in a potential final against Rafael Nadal or Carlos Alcaraz .
Here the individual tableau in Indian Wells
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