FRITZ BEATS STRUFF TO REACH HIS CAREER FIRST FINAL AT ST. PETERSBURG OPEN

The American Taylor Fritz rallied to beat the 31-year-old German Jan-Lennard Struff in three sets – 5/7, 6/1, 6/3. The tennis players spent almost 2 hrs on court. It was a spectacular semi final with lots of interesting rallies. The opening set was really close, Frits made the first break (3/1), but Stuff broke back immediately and only at the very end of the set tipped the scales his way – 7/5. The first set lasted 50 mins. In the second set Struff made many unforced errors while everything worked for Fritz – 6/1. It was an even match in the third set but then when the score was 3/1 the American made another break and it helped him close out the match confidently as even broke his opponent again at the very end of the match 6/3. 

“I played pretty well for a lot of parts in the first set, but a couple things didn’t go my way. I got up a break and then maybe played not the best serve game, was broken back, got another chance to break and then got broken from 40/15 up. Couple of things just didn’t go my way, but I kind of recovered and brought it together and played pretty solid in the second and third sets”, – commented Fritz. He also added that “it’s amazing to have people cheering for me when I’m so far away from home”.