No 3 seed Fritz overcomes Isner in three sets at Acapulco 500

No 3 seed Taylor Fritz edged out John Isner 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to reach the second round of the Mexican Open at the Princess Mundo Imperial in Acapulco on Monday night.

Fritz’s first match as a top-five player certainly wasn’t easy, but he managed to advanced through this all-American matchup after one hour and 53 minutes. The 25-year-old not only had to deal with Isner’s huge serve, but he also seemed to struggle with an apparent knee injury in the early stages of the match.

“It was really strange,” Fritz said afterward.” It’s something that I’ve dealt with when I was 18. Typically I only feel it when I’m getting off a flight or I haven’t played in a few days and I’m stiff. So I don’t know why I felt it like that. I haven’t felt it in matches in a long time. But once I started feeling better I started to play well…. I thought I played really well in the third.

“I’m extremely happy. When the draw comes out, (Isner) is not what you want to see in the first round. It’s a 50/50 match; it can go either way. I was lucky to get through.”

Fritz, ranked No 5, will play the winner of the match between Canadian Denis Shapovalov and Serb Miomir Kecmanovic next.

Acapulco ATP500, other first-round matchups and results:

• Alex De Minaur vs. Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez
• Jacopo Berrettini vs. Oscar Otte
• Daniel Altmaier vs. Brandon Nakashima
• Carlos Alcaraz vs. Mackenzie McDonald
• Nuno Borges vs. Nick Chappell
• Matteo Berrettini vs. Alex Molcan
• Cameron Norrie vs. Adrian Mannarino
• Guido Andreozzi vs. Casper Ruud
• Taro Daniel vs. J.J. Wolf
• Emilio Gomez vs. Tommy Paul
• Ben Shelton vs. Holger Rune
• Yoshihito Nishioka vs. Frances Tiafoe
• Christopher Eubanks vs. Feliciano López
• Denis Shapovalov vs. Miomir Kecmanovic
• Michael Mmoh d. Marcos Giron 7-6(3), 6-1

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