Match Report<\/p>\n
Taylor Fritz cruised into his 44th career semifinal and a showdown with buddy Tommy Paul.<\/p>\n
Richard PagliaroOctober 23, 20263 minute read<\/p>\n
By Richard Pagliaro | Friday, October 23, 2026
Photo credit: Simon Bruty\/USTA<\/p>\n
Taylor Fritz can be a chronic nit-picker when it comes to the state of his game.<\/p>\n
Self-described perfectionist Fritz continues playing near pristine tennis in Lyon.<\/p>\n
Fritz served 76 percent powering past Daniel Altmaier 7-6(5), 6-2 into his 44th Tour-level semifinal in Lyon today.<\/p>\n
It is Fritz\u2019s fifth semifinal of the season\u2014the fifth time in the last six years he\u2019s reached at least five semifinals in a season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Commanding on serve, Fritz won 37 of 42 first-serve points and did not face a break point defeating Altmaier for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, I think this whole week I\u2019ve been pretty happy about everything,\u201d Fritz said. \u201cIn practice as well, I\u2019ve been feeling very confident about all parts of my game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m serving really well and I think I\u2019m hitting the ball really well from both sides.\u201d<\/p>\n
The second-seeded Fritz is hunting his 12th career title\u2014and first championship since he won Washington, DC last August.<\/p>\n
Fritz faces friendly fire in an all-American semifinal vs. good friend Tommy Paul.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty even,\u201d Fritz said of his 3-3 Tour-level record vs. Paul. \u201cWe\u2019ve definitely gone back and forth over the years in wins and losses. It\u2019s never easy. He\u2019s one of my best friends. It\u2019s never easy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Closing a marathon encounter with a 36-stroke rally, a relentless Paul left Corentin Moutet smashing his racquet in the backcourt. <\/p>\n
Another day\u2019s work for newlywed Paul in Lyon.<\/p>\n
The American advanced to the semifinals to face second-seeded Fritz in Friday\u2019s first quarterfinal in Lyon, taking out the wildly talented Frenchman 6-4, 3-6, 6-6 in two hours and 45 minutes. Paul came to the net 59 times and won 38 of those points to improve to 3-0 against Moutet.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, you kind of never know what to expect. He can pull out a shot from anywhere. He can pretty much do everything on the tennis court,\u201d Paul, sporting a new bushy beard, said. \u201cAnd he\u2019s a great competitor. He always plays me close, always have insane points. So I knew I was in for a battle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paul notched his 44th win of the season against 19 losses and reached his 24th career semifinal.<\/p>\n
How did he manage to outlast the trickiest of competitors, with the faithful in Lyon cheering his every move?<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not really sure,\u201d he said with a smile. \u201cI knew I had to compete well today, so I just tried to put it all on the line there in the third and do my best to compete as good as I could.\u201d<\/p>\n
Altmaier saved couple of break points and punctuated a hard-fought hold with firm \u201cAllez!\u201d after leveling for 3-All.<\/p>\n
Relaxed on serve, Fritz stamped a two-ace hold for 5-4.<\/p>\n
When Fritz snapped a forehand return into the top of the tape, Altmaier held at 30 to force the first-set tie break.<\/p>\n
In a gritty defensive effort, Fritz made several fine digs then drilled a forehand pass down the line, too hot to handle, for a 3-2 tie break lead. Two points later, Altmaier missed his favored backhand down the line as Fritz gained the mini break and 4-3 lead. Fritz hooked a forehand into the corner for three set points.<\/p>\n
Altmaier saved two set points, throwing down a smash to erase the second. Chased off the doubles alley by a biting return, Fritz blasted a clean backhand down the line winner sealing a one-set lead with a bang.<\/p>\n
Swinging more freely in the second set, Fritz broke twice in a row for a 5-2 lead. Fritz served out a one hour,\u00a025 minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Match Report Taylor Fritz cruised into his 44th career semifinal and a showdown with buddy Tommy Paul. Richard…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":938749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-938748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=938748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/938749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=938748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=938748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=938748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}