Recently engaged American Taylor Fritz is widely hailed as the future of men's tennis. However, today he learned he has a long way to go if he is to topple the likes of Stan Wawrinka. Despite, the younger Fritz taking one set off Wawrinka, the Swiss overmatched his opponent with experience and skill to win 7-6(4), 6-1, 6-7(2), 6-4 and advance in the Championships at Wimbledon.
A routine day
Very little seemed to separate the two players in the opening set of the match. One could even reasonably assume that Fritz was a seasoned veteran with the way he comfortably held serve throughout the beginnings of the match. Indeed, it was Wawrinka who would face a modest break point in the opening set.
In the set's ninth game, the Swiss number two saved the break by forcing a bad error off the young American's forehand. After Wawrinka fired another winner, he was able to hold serve when he forced yet another error from his lesser-experienced opponent.
It appeared that little mistakes and a lack of an ability to handle shots to his forehand would be Fritz's undoing in the match. Indeed, it's what lost him the first set tiebreak as he rather weakly failed to properly return Wawrinka's shots.
Ebbs and flows
Despite Fritz's sloppiness with his forehand, Wawrinka made up for it with uncharacteristically bad groundstrokes. The Swiss player is known for his exchanges of powerful strokes that take his opponent off balance. Today, he had to rely on other measures- especially in the third set. The Swiss right-hander had 14 unforced errors and was forced to cover a much longer distance throughout the set. He covered a total of 743 meters as Fritz shocked him by taking the third set in a tiebreak.
However, Wawrinka is a seasoned champion who has had his share of Grand Slam success before. The Swiss made the quarterfinal at the All England Club each of the past two years.
He leaned on that experience as he reeled off three consecutive games to begin the fourth set, breaking Fritz twice and taking a commanding lead 4-0. Fritz, for his part, would break Wawrinka later on and win three games in the final set. But he was humbled by frenzied pace with which the world number four began the final set. Wawrinka served out the match to emerge victorious.
Fritz, for his part, can take some solace in the fact that he rattled one of the best players in the world.