Fritz downs Bublik to reach the final and defend his Stuttgart title

American Taylor Fritz moved within one win of defending his Boss Open title on Saturday, the second seed seeing off Kazakh third seed Alexander Bublik 6-4, 6-4 on the Stuttgart grass to reach a second consecutive final at the ATP 250 event.

Fritz, ranked No 9, needed only the two sets to subdue an opponent who had not dropped serve in his run to the last four. It was a notable marker for the American after a difficult start to the season: Bublik, the world No 11, was the first top-20 player Fritz had beaten in 2026, and the win carried him into his first final since Dallas in February, where he lost to Ben Shelton.

A path through three-set tests

Fritz had been made to work hard for his place in the final. He edged Italian Mattia Bellucci (5-7, 7-5, 7-5) and then survived a tighter examination against Spaniard Martin Landaluce (6-7 (4), 7-5, 7-6 (3)), recovering an opening-set deficit on both occasions before finding the decisive margin late. By contrast, Saturday’s straight-sets win was his most economical performance of the week.

Bublik’s own route had carried genuine threat. The Kazakh, a dangerous grass-court operator, knocked out big-serving Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard (7-6 (5), 7-6 (3)) and then German Jan-Lennard Struff (7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-2) to reach the semi-finals, but found no way past Fritz’s serve when it mattered.

Fritz will meet the winner of the second semi-final, between top seed Ben Shelton and Czech fourth seed Jiri Lehecka, in Sunday’s final. A meeting with Shelton would carry an edge: the man who beat Fritz for the Dallas title in February stands as a possible obstacle to the American’s title defence.