Fritz hammers 32 aces in victory over Basilashvili

American Taylor Fritz, the No 8 seed, edged out Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 to advance to the second round of the Australian Open at Melbourne Park on Tuesday.

The American rifled 32 aces and hit 41 winners against 27 unforced errors to earn his victory in two hours and 24 minutes to improve to 3-2 over Basilashvili and 10-6 at the Australian Open. Fritz is making his sixth appearance in Melbourne – last year he made his best performance by reaching the round of 16 before falling to Stefanos Tsitsipas in five sets.

Fritz, ranked No 9, will face the winner of the match between Chun-Hsin Tseng and Australian wildcard Alexei Popyrin next.

“I came out a little bit real nervy. You know, first match at a slam as a top-8 seed, so a little bit nervous. Let me kind of regroup, calm down a little bit. I felt like with the roof closed as well, it was easier to serve because it cut out the sun, cut out the wind. How I’d serve the ball on both sides is exactly the same once the roof was closed, so it allowed me to get into a really good serve rhythm for most of the match.”

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Tennis Majors

Melbourne (Grand Slam), other first-round results (Melbourne Park, hard, USD 24.297.942, most recent results first):

• Tomas Machac vs. Casper Ruud
• Roberto Carballes Baena vs. Novak Djokovic
• João Sousa vs. Roberto Bautista Agut
• Thanasi Kokkinakis vs. Fabio Fognini
• Yu Hsiou Hsu vs. Alex De Minaur
• Michael Mmoh vs. Laurent Lokoli
• Ben Shelton vs. Zhizhen Zhang
• Filip Krajinovic vs. Holger Rune
• Denis Kudla vs. Roman Safiullin
• John Isner vs. Adrian Mannarino
• Jan-Lennard Struff vs. Tommy Paul
• Richard Gasquet vs. Ugo Humbert
• Max Purcell vs. Emil Ruusuvuori
• Christopher O’Connell vs. Jenson Brooksby
• Aleksandar Vukic vs. Brandon Holt
• Maxime Cressy vs. Albert Ramos-Vinolas
• Chun-Hsin Tseng vs. Alexei Popyrin
• Enzo Couacaud vs. Hugo Dellien
• Juan Pablo Varillas vs. Alexander Zverev: tuesday
• Matteo Berrettini vs. Andy Murray: tuesday
• J.J. Wolf vs. Jordan Thompson: tuesday
• Pablo Carreno Busta vs. Pedro Cachin
• Alejandro Davidovich Fokina vs. Alexander Bublik
• Nicolas Jarry vs. Miomir Kecmanovic
• Diego Schwartzman vs. Oleksii Krutykh: tuesday
• Laslo Djere beat Zizou Bergs (Q): 6-4, 1-6, 6-4, 6-1
• Grigor Dimitrov (27) beat Aslan Karatsev: 7-6 (3), 7-5, 6-2
• Mattia Bellucci vs. Benjamin Bonzi: tuesday
• Facundo Bagnis vs. Daniel Evans
• Daniel Elahi Galan vs. Jeremy Chardy: tuesday
• Andrey Rublev (5) beat Dominic Thiem (WC): 6-3, 6-4, 6-2
• Daniil Medvedev (7) beat Marcos Giron: 6-0, 6-1, 6-2
• Constant Lestienne beat Thiago Monteiro: 6-3, 7-6 (2), 6-3
• Lloyd Harris beat Lorenzo Musetti (17): 6-4, 6-1, 6-7, 2-6, 7-6 (4)
• Stefanos Tsitsipas (3) beat Quentin Halys: 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (6)
• Felix Auger-Aliassime (6) beat Vasek Pospisil: 1-6, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (3), 6-3
• Cameron Norrie (11) beat Luca Van Assche (WC): 7-6 (3), 6-0, 6-3
• Rinky Hijikata (WC) beat Yannick Hanfmann (Q): 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-3
• Alex Molcan beat Stan Wawrinka: 6-7 (3), 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (2), 6-4
• Marton Fucsovics beat Federico Coria: 4-6, 7-5, 2-6, 7-6 (6), 6-2
• Christopher Eubanks (WC) beat SoonWoo Kwon: 6-3, 6-7 (1), 6-3, 4-6, 6-4
• John Millman (WC) beat Marc-Andrea Huesler: 6-7 (8), 7-5, 6-7 (2), 6-2, 6-3
• Dalibor Svrcina (Q) beat Jaume Munar: 6-3, 6-2, 6-2
• Jiri Lehecka beat Borna Coric (21): 6-3, 6-3, 6-3
• Lorenzo Sonego beat Nuno Borges: 7-6 (4), 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-1
• Jason Kubler (WC) beat Sebastian Baez: 6-4, 6-4, 6-4
• Taro Daniel beat Ernesto Escobedo (Q): 7-5, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3
• Rafael Nadal (1) beat Jack Draper: 7-5, 2-6, 6-4, 6-1
• Frances Tiafoe (16) beat Daniel Altmaier: 6-3, 6-3, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (6)
• Karen Khachanov (18) beat Bernabe Zapata Miralles: 7-6 (3), 6-2, 6-0
• Mackenzie McDonald beat Brandon Nakashima: 7-6 (5), 7-6 (1), 1-6, 6-7 (10), 6-4
• Tallon Griekspoor beat Pavel Kotov (LL): 6-3, 7-6 (3), 6-3
• Denis Shapovalov (20) beat Dusan Lajovic: 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1
• Yoshihito Nishioka (31) beat Mikael Ymer: 6-4, 6-2, 7-5
• Sebastian Korda (29) beat Cristian Garin: 6-4, 1-6, 6-3, 6-2
• Hubert Hurkacz (10) beat Pedro Martinez: 7-6 (1), 6-2, 6-2
• Corentin Moutet beat Yibing Wu (WC): 6-4, 5-7, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5
• Francisco Cerundolo (28) beat Guido Pella: 6-4, 6-4, 6-3
• Jannik Sinner (15) beat Kyle Edmund: 6-4, 6-0, 6-2
• Tomas Martin Etcheverry beat Gregoire Barrere: 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4
• Botic van de Zandschulp (32) beat Ilya Ivashka: 6-3, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3
• Yosuke Watanuki (Q) beat Arthur Rinderknech: 6-3, 6-3, 6-2
• Juncheng Shang (Q) beat Oscar Otte: 6-2, 6-4, 6-7 (2), 7-5

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