California kid Fritz upsets Sinner in Indian Wells fourth round
Taylor Fritz takes out Jannik Sinner in straight sets to reach the quarter-finals of the Indian Wells Masters on Wednesday. It is the best Masters 1000 result of Fritz’s career.
Taylor Fritz
2021 BNP Paribas Open | Draw | Order of Play
Taylor Fritz has often played some of his best tennis at the BNP Paribas Open, which is no surprise given that he is from California.
Fritz is playing better than ever in the desert this fall.
The No 31 seed booked a spot in the quarter-finals of a Masters 1000 event for the first time in his career by beating 10th-seeded Jannik Sinner 6-4, 6-3 during fourth-round action on Wednesday afternoon. Fritz fired six aces (Sinner had zero) and broke the Italian five times while prevailing in one hour and 40 minutes.
The 23-year-old reached the Indian Wells third round in 2017 (upset world No 7 Marin Cilic) and advanced to the fourth round in 2018 with defeats of Reilly Opelka, Andrey Rublev, and Fernando Verdasco. Now he finds himself in the last eight without having dropped a single set. Fritz preceded his result against Sinner with wins over Brandon Nakashima and fifth-seeded Matteo Berrettini.
“It’s huge for me,” the world No 39 assured. “It’s big especially to have a good win against a really good player yesterday, then kind of come back and play even better today against another really good player. Just play my game, play it well, play confidently, just close it out. It feels great to do it. Also it’s such a special tournament to me, as well…. This is a home tournament for me basically. It means a lot. Also my first Masters 1000 quarterfinal.”
Fritz will go up against either Alexander Zverev or Gael Monfils in the quarters on Friday.
