Tie-break Taylor! Fritz squeezes past Atmane in Shanghai

p It may have taken 48 hours, but a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/taylor-fritz/fb98/overview'Taylor Fritz/a ensured his big plans for the final stretch of the 2024 season remain on course with a hard-earned opening victory Monday at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/shanghai/5014/overview'Rolex Shanghai Masters/a. /p

p The American kept his cool in the face of a free-spirited performance from a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/terence-atmane/a0gc/overview'Terence Atmane/a to secure a 7-6(4), 7-6(5) triumph at the Chinese ATP Masters 1000. After rain forced the second-round clash to be suspended with Fritz leading 4-3 on serve on Saturday afternoon, the seventh seed on Monday completed a two-hour, three-minute victory under the roof inside Qizhong Forest Sports City Arena. /p

p The a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/us-open/560/overview'US Open/a finalist Fritz remains fifth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin and is in a strong position to qualify for the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/nitto-atp-finals/605/overview'Nitto ATP Finals/a, where he made his debut in 2022. Yet the American was determined to take things one step at a time after passing a tough test from Atmane in the pairrsquo;s maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head clash. /p

p ldquo;I donrsquo;t want to speak too soon, but I think Irsquo;m in a good position,rdquo; said Fritz. ldquo;Irsquo;m not thinking so much about the goal of reaching the finals right now, because Irsquo;m fifth in the Race. If the goal is that and I get panicky, it would be like, lsquo;Letrsquo;s just not slip four spotsrsquo;. My goal right now is to finish the year in the Top 5, keep my place. I think thatrsquo;s just a better mindset to have, both to qualify for the finals and play good tennis for the rest of the year.rdquo; /p

blockquote class="twitter-tweet"

p lang="en" dir="ltr"Firing on all cylinders ????a href="https://twitter.com/Taylor_Fritz97?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@Taylor_Fritz97/a keeps his perfect Shanghai opening round record intact, defeating Atmane 7-6(4) 7-6(5).a href="https://twitter.com/SH_RolexMasters?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@SH_RolexMasters/a | a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RolexShanghaiMasters?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#RolexShanghaiMasters/a a href="https://t.co/Aejpiu9R4L"pic.twitter.com/Aejpiu9R4L/a/p

mdash; ATP Tour (@atptour) a href="https://twitter.com/atptour/status/1843167516476203200?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"October 7, 2024/a/blockquote

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p Against Atmane, Fritz crucially saved the only two break points of the opening set from 15/40 in the ninth game, and after clinching the first-set tie-break he established a 4-2 lead in the second set. The Frenchman continued to push Fritz, but the American again found something extra late on to clinch the second set in a tie-break. /p

p ldquo;I think his ability to basically hit a winner from anywhere on the court made it very tough,rdquo; said Fritz. ldquo;Because sometimes I almost felt like if I wanted to be the aggressor in the rally, I had to go on when I maybe didnrsquo;t want to go on. Then sometimes I had to take just a more defensive, solid approach to the points, let him pull the trigger and if he makes it, he makes it. /p

p ldquo;That uncertainty of, 'What if he does make it?' is always uncomfortable. He was playing really well, serving well on big points, so itrsquo;s great to get through that in two sets.rdquo; /p

p Fritzrsquo;s next assignment in Shanghai will be a third-round clash on Tuesday against a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/yosuke-watanuki/wb08/overview'Yosuke Watanuki/a. The 26-year-old Fritz is now 5-0 in opening rounds at the Chinese Masters 1000, but is yet to reach the fourth round across his five appearances. /p

[ATP APP]

p Another Top 10 star and Turin hopeful, a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/grigor-dimitrov/d875/overview'Grigor Dimitrov/a, also completed victory Monday in a rain-affected second-round clash. The Bulgarian led a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/zizou-bergs/bu13/overview'Zizou Bergs/a 6-3, 2-4 when their meeting was suspended on Saturday, and upon resumption he battled to a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 triumph. /p

p Dimitrov converted five of seven break points he earned against Bergs, according to Infosys ATP Stats, as the 2017 a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/nitto-atp-finals/605/overview'Nitto ATP Finals/a champion consolidated 10th place in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin. He will hope to build on his good start in Shanghai when he takes on a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alexei-popyrin/p09z/overview'Alexei Popyrin/a in the third round. /p

blockquote class="twitter-tweet"p lang="en" dir="ltr"The forehand is firing ????a href="https://twitter.com/GrigorDimitrov?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@GrigorDimitrov/a continues to chase a place in Turin, increasing his a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/InAttack?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#InAttack/a and delivering an impressive a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ConversionScore?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#ConversionScore/a with the help of his fantastic forehand ????a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TennisInsights?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#TennisInsights/a | a href="https://twitter.com/atptour?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@atptour/a | a href="https://twitter.com/RolexSHMasters?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@RolexSHMasters/a a href="https://t.co/2aXJN0RGWj"pic.twitter.com/2aXJN0RGWj/a/pmdash; Tennis Insights (@tennis_insights) a href="https://twitter.com/tennis_insights/status/1843189404342661597?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"October 7, 2024/a/blockquote script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"/script

p Another member of the chasing pack in the Live Race, the 14th-placed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/frances-tiafoe/td51/overview'Frances Tiafoe/a, made a solid start to his Shanghai campaign. The 13th seed prevailed 6-2, 6-4 against #NextGenATP home favourite a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.atptour.com/en/players/yi-zhou/z0cq/overview" target="_blank"Zhou Yi/a. It was a first win in Shanghai since 2017 for Tiafoe, who will next play a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/roman-safiullin/sx50/overview'Roman Safiullin/a. The World No. 61 Safiullin upset 23rd seed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alexander-bublik/bk92/overview'Alexander Bublik/a 6-4, 6-2 in a match moved to an indoor court because of the rain. /p

p [NEWSLETTER FORM] /p