Could this be the week that Taylor Fritz breaks his clay-court trophy duck on the ATP Tour?
The 25-year-old sent out a statement to the rest of the field Thursday at the Gonet Geneva Open, where he raced past Ilya Ivashka 6-1, 6-2 with a blistering quarter-final performance at the clay-court ATP 250.
Fritz battled through a three-set test against Marcos Giron in his opening match in Geneva but had no such trouble brushing past the World No. 86 Ivashka in the pair’s first ATP Head2Head meeting. Striking powerfully and with depth off both wings throughout, the second seed broke his opponent’s serve twice in each set and did not face a break point on his own delivery in the 51-minute encounter.
Fritz flies forwards 👉
He takes the win 6-1, 6-2 against Ivashka 🔥
@genevaopen | #atpgva pic.twitter.com/MVkZC5UgTI
With his 29th tour-level victory of the season, Fritz advanced to his third tour-level clay-court semi-final of 2023. Having fallen in the final four in Monte-Carlo and Munich, the American will hope to maintain his level in Geneva as he chases his maiden ATP Tour championship match appearance on clay.
Standing in his way of that goal will be Grigor Dimitrov or Christopher O’Connell, who meet in the second quarter-final of the day on Thursday.
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