Son of former COD coach scores upset win at BNP Paribas Open
Taylor Fritz upset sixth-seeded Marin Cilic of Croatia while Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal both won in their singles debuts in the 2017 BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament Sunday as second-round men’s singles play concluded.
The 19-year-old Fritz, son of former College of the Desert coach Guy Fritz, defeated Cilic, 4-6, 7-5, 6-4, overcoming a 3-1 deficit in the second set, for his first victory over a player ranked in the Association of Tennis
Professionals Top 10.
“It’s amazing, especially with all the crowd support,” Fritz said.“And just being at this tournament, my whole family was there. (My wife) Raquel was going crazy. It was amazing. Just the whole experience with the crowd, how I came back in the match, it’s just, like, words can’t describe it, really.”
Fritz credited the victory to his service return.
“I thought I returned much better than normal,” said Fritz, 136th on the ATP rankings, 129 spots below Cilic. “I don’t think it’s one of the strongest parts of my game. I thought I did a really good job of returning one of the best servers in the game’s serve throughout that match.”
The only other seeded players to lose were 23rd-seeded Sam Querrey, who lost to fellow American Donald Young, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, and 32nd-seeded Marcel Granollers of Spain, a 7-5, 6-3 loser to Malek Jaziri of Tunisia.
Federer, the ninth seed from Switzerland, needed 51 minutes to defeat Stephane Robert of France, 6-2, 6-1, in a night match that lasted 51 minutes.
Nadal, the fifth seed from Spain, was able to overcome on-court temperatures of 120 degrees to defeat Guido Pella of Argentina, 6-3, 6-2 victory.
All 32 seeded men received first-round byes.
Third-round women’s singles play began with two upsets — 11th-seeded Johanna Konta of Great Britain losing to 21st-seeded Caroline Garcia of France, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (1) and 17th-seeded Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic losing to 19th-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia, 6-3, 6-2.
The only American in action, 17-year-old Kayla Day, who received a wild card into the the tournament, lost to seventh-seeded Garbine Muguruza of Spain, the reigning French Open champion, 3-6, 7-5, 6-2.
