Taylor Fritz had to play more tennis than he wanted to on Thursday at the Eastbourne Open. The grass-court 250 tournament is the American's last chance to warm up before playing at Wimbledon beginning on June 30. After Thursday, he should be ready.
The ATP No. 5 had to start the day by finishing off his match against rising Brazilian João Fonseca. The second-round match started on Wednesday, but after Fonseca won the second-set tie-break, forcing a decisive third set, the match was suspended. To move into the quarterfinals, Fritz defeated Fonseca 7-5 in the third set.
The American then only got a short rest before facing his fellow countryman, Marcos Giron. Giron was not going to be an easy task for Fritz, however. Giron is 31 years old and has only won one ATP title in his career, but he's been a menace to Fritz.
Taylor Fritz dispatches Marcos Giron in tight three-set match at Eastbourne Open
The two players had faced each other six times heading into the quarterfinal match, and Giron had won two of them. That included Giron defeating Fritz on the clay of the Rome Masters in May. Giron's only tour title came on the grass courts of Newport, so he wasn't awful on the surface.
In the first set, each player held serve relatively easily until Fritz did the thing that great players do. He stole his chance to seemingly change the course of the match by getting a break of Giron to take the set 7-5.
In the second set, Fritz was likely looking for an easier time simply to get off the court for a bit of rest before playing in the Eastbourne Open semifinals on Friday against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. Instead, Giron broke Fritz to take a 2-1 lead. Giron held and then got another break to lead 4-1. Fritz got a break back, but that is all, and Giron took the set 6-4.
The third set was tight, too, as each player held somewhat easily for most of the set. At this point, Giron had to feel as if he was so close to reaching the semifinals and perhaps within distance of another grass-court tournament win. He was the equal of Fritz at nearly every step, and that has to give him dreams of Wimbledon success.
Leading 5-4, Fritz was able to take advantage of the same thing he had done in the first set, however. He put pressure of Giron's serve and got the break to finish off the match 7-5 4-6 7-5. One might wonder how much energy he has left for the semifinals, especially with Wimbledon just days away.