Taylor Fritz wins his second match of the day in Eastbourne

Taylor Fritz is through to the semifinals of the Eastbourne tournament! The top seed at the British event defeated fellow American Marcos Giron in three sets on Thursday (7-5, 4-6, 7-5).

The marathon is over for Taylor Fritz. His match against Joao Fonseca, which had been interrupted by darkness the previous day, concluded on Thursday with a victory. A bit later in the day, he returned to the court to face his compatriot Marcos Giron.

The match got off to a rough start for the top seed, who lost his serve in the opening game. But he quickly responded with a break of his own to level at 1-1. The two players then held serve until 6-5 in Fritz’s favor, when Giron faltered on his serve and conceded the set.

I like to play beautiful tennis, but today I had to play some crazy tennis to win

The world No. 46 didn’t give up and showed his compatriot that he would have to fight hard for the win. In very tough, windy conditions, Giron managed a double break in the second set to put pressure on Fritz. Though Fritz broke back once, he couldn’t stop Giron from leveling the match at one set all.

With 16 aces in total, Taylor Fritz relied on his serve to get through Thursday’s challenge in Eastbourne. He didn’t face a single break point in the third set and, just like in the first, he broke Giron at 6-5 to avoid a tie-break.

“I love this tournament, but today the wind made things very tough. I like to play beautiful tennis, but today I had to play some crazy tennis to win. If the wind is the same tomorrow, I’ll have to do the same to beat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.”

Fritz will indeed face Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the semifinals of the British tournament. It will be their fifth meeting on the ATP Tour. The Spaniard leads the head-to-head 3-1 and won their last encounter in Delray Beach earlier this season.