American Taylor Fritz, 28played an impressive match to reach the Wimbledon quarterfinals for the fourth time, defeating Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan, 29, 7-6(1), 6-4, 6-4 in No. 1 Court at one o’clock again 39 minutes.
The victory promoted Fritz to be 5-4 in his head-to-head series with Bublik and 3-0 against the Kazakhs on grass, including a straightforward victory in Stuttgart last month. Fritz struck 23 aces, hit 47 they won against just eight unforced errors, they won 89 percentage of his first points as well 76 percent of his second points, and converted three of his four opportunities to rest.
The victory sends Fritz to his eighth Grand Slam quarterfinal.
After collapsing after the morning break in the opening set, Fritz quickly settled down. He bounced back and dominated the tiebreak, running through it 7-1 take control of the game.
From there, Fritz’s aggressive game and first strike allowed Bublik to finally get the nod that put him in the fourth round. At one point, Bublik stood waiting to serve almost 20 seconds as there was applause in another court. When the ovation finally died down, No. 1 The court crowd laughed and applauded before the match began. Fritz got one break in the last two sets before serving out the match in straight sets.
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In his post-match press conference, Fritz said: “Yes, I’m very happy. It’s a really tough match against him. To go through it three times in a row, especially after going down from the break to start the first set, I’m very happy with the way I played.”
On his return against Bublik’s serve, Fritz said: “I would say the biggest difference on grass is the way I return. I return very differently on grass. For me, in Stuttgart and here, I felt like I learned well from other serves. I was getting good hits, good hits on his first serve, starting points in really good places.”
Fritz added: “That’s what I did best today, that’s when I got my chances, I took them.”
Fritz will face either Alexander Zverev or Jiri Lehecka in the quarterfinals if their fourth-round match resumes on Tuesday after an overnight suspension due to Wimbledon. 11 p.m curfew time.
