Madrid Masters: Fritz makes third round

American Taylor Fritz, the No 12 seed, advanced to the third round of the Madrid Masters by winning against Italian Luciano Darderi 7-6 (1), 6-4 at the Caja Magica on Friday evening.

Fritz, ranked No 13, will face Argentinian Sebastian Baez, the No 18 seed, next. The American improved to 16-7 on the season and 4-3 lifetime at Madrid, where he reached the fourth round in 2023 as a best performance to date.

Fritz made the fast-playing conditions in Madrid work for him as he fired nine aces and won 33 of 38 of his first-serve points in the pair’s first head-to-head meeting.

In the previous round of the Madrid tournament, Darderi, ranked No 60, beat Frenchman Gael Monfils (6-4, 6-2).

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Madrid Masters 1000, other second-round results (Caja Magica, clay, EUR 7.877.020, most recent results first):

• Miomir Kecmanovic vs. Casper Ruud
• Roberto Bautista Agut vs. Karen Khachanov
• Cameron Norrie vs. Joao Fonseca
• Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Adrian Mannarino
• Alex De Minaur vs. Rafael Nadal
• Tomas Machac vs. Ben Shelton
• Grigor Dimitrov vs. Jakub Mensik
• Nicolas Jarry vs. Flavio Cobolli
• Alexander Bublik vs. Roberto Carballes Baena
• Daniil Medvedev vs. Matteo Arnaldi
• Pedro Cachin vs. Frances Tiafoe
• Pavel Kotov vs. Jordan Thompson
• Jannik Sinner vs. Lorenzo Sonego
• Thiago Monteiro vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas
• Jiri Lehecka vs. Hamad Medjedovic
• Max Purcell vs. Sebastian Korda
• Borna Coric vs. Alexander Zverev
• Tallon Griekspoor vs. Taro Daniel
• Jaume Munar vs. Jan-Lennard Struff
• Mariano Navone vs. Holger Rune
• Ugo Humbert vs. Botic van de Zandschulp: friday
• Carlos Alcaraz (2) beat Alexander Shevchenko: 6-2, 6-1
• Hubert Hurkacz (8) beat Jack Draper: 6-1, 7-5
• Sebastian Baez beat Luca Van Assche: 6-4, 6-7 (2), 6-3
• Denis Shapovalov beat Tomas Martin Etcheverry (26): 7-6 (3), 6-3
• Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (27) beat Juncheng Shang (WC): 7-5, 6-3
• Daniel Altmaier beat Arthur Fils (31): 6-2, 6-3
• Andrey Rublev (7) beat Facundo Bagnis (Q): 6-1, 6-4
• Thiago Seyboth Wild beat Lorenzo Musetti (28): 6-4, 6-4
• Francisco Cerundolo (21) beat Fabian Marozsan: 6-2, 7-6 (5)
• Tommy Paul (15) beat Lukas Klein (Q): 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-4