Taylor Fritz shows who is boss in opening victory in Indian Wells
Two drastically different sets of tennis combined to give Southern California native Taylor Fritz a victory in his first match of the 2024 BNP Paribas Open on Saturday.
Sporting new clothing apparel from his sponsorship deal with the Italian fashion house Hugo Boss, Fritz survived a tight first set for a tiebreaker win, then waltzed to a victory in the second set against Alejandro Tabilo of Chile 7-6 (2), 6-2.
The win moves Fritz into the third round of the tournament he feels most comfortable at on tour. Fritz won the BNP Paribas Open in 2022, beating Rafael Nadal in the final, and grew up coming to the event while his father Guy was a coach in the area.
"I feel good even if it's not my absolute best, it's still a pretty high level," said Fritz, the top-ranked American. "I don't know what it is. I like the conditions. I get excited for this week, for sure. I feel super motivated to play. Nervous for sure going out there, a tournament that means so much to me. But as soon as I kind of start playing and feeling it, then it goes away, because I just feel like I'm playing pretty well."
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The first set for Fritz and Tablio on Saturday was a display of pure power tennis. Not only did neither player manage a break of serve in the set, neither player even faced a break point.
"He served really well the first set. Like, he was mixing up the spots, hitting it big, and serving a really high percentage of first serves," Fritz said. "Not much I really could have done to break. Not much I think a lot of players could have really done to break him in that first set, so it is what it is. You go into that tiebreaker."
In the tiebreaker, Tablio helped Fritz by hitting two backhands into the net, missing one backhand wide and sailing another backhand long before losing the set with a forehand into the net.
In a quick reversal in the match, Fritz broke Tablio's serve in the first game of the set and then held his serve for a quick 2-0 lead. Fritz managed another break to take a 4-1 lead and both players held serve the rest of the way for Fritz to close out the win.
Overall, Fritz never faced a break point in the match, while Tablio faced eight break points, losing the two points that allowed Fritz to win.
The serve of Fritz was a powerful weapon in the match as he served 14 aces compared to just six for Tablio. Fritz also returned serve better, winning 27 percent of the points when he returned Tablio's first serve, compared to just 14 percent for Tablio off the second serve of Fritz.
Fritz said whatever nerves he did face at the start of the match disappeared quickly against Tablio.
"Yeah, a match like today, like, a game or two, and I feel that I'm serving really well and it feels good," he said of the disappearing nerves. "I'm not too worried."
The 19th career victory at Indian Wells advances Fritz, the No. 12 seed, to a third-round match against No. 19 seed Sebastian Baez, a straight-set winner over Fabio Fognini on Saturday.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Taylor Fritz shows who is boss in opening BNP Paribas Open victory
