Taylor Fritz has continued his strong form into the Washington Open by winning his opener against Aleksandar Vukic.
Fritz is the top seed at the ATP 500 tournament, his first event since he reached the semifinals of Wimbledon.
The American overcame Vukic 6-3, 6-2 in their Washington Open clash, and now takes on Matteo Arnaldi in the round of 16.
Fritz is chasing a first ATP 500 title since 2022, and now has a fantastic chance to clinch such success on home soil this week.
He should be boosted by his efforts at Wimbledon, where his fantastic run was ended by second seed Alcaraz.
Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty ImagesTaylor Fritz calls for rule change during the Washington Open
Alcaraz and world number one Jannik Sinner aren’t playing at the Washington Open, with Fritz having now been asked if a rest after Wimbledon was on his mind this week.
Also questioned if he ever plans to skip any events, he told reporters: “Yeah, there is a rule now you have to play a certain amount of 500 events, and I was injured earlier in this year and I missed two 500 events because of that.
“So to actually meet my amount of 500s that I need to play, I need to play Washington, I need to play Tokyo, and I need to play Basel.
“So there is no other 500 weeks I can make up. So yeah, I’m taking a zero on my record if I don’t play this week.
“So I think if that wasn’t the case, there would probably… it’s a really good chance I would have taken the week off.
“I felt like it was a really quick turnaround, but at the same time, getting matches, playing in the heat, training here, there’s positives I can take out of playing this week.
“I think it’s good for getting myself in the rhythm of, you know, playing these humid, hot matches on hard court.”
And when it was suggested that he would like to change that rule, he said: “I mean, to be honest, I think when they announced, when I heard about the rule earlier in the year, I didn’t think it would make a difference.
“I’m, like, I’m going to play in the 500s anyways. It comes down to missing two from injury. Now it’s like, okay, well, now I kind of just have to.
“I think there should be some kind of exemptions. There’s like Masters 1000 exemptions for, I don’t know the actual, like, I think it’s, like, Grand Slam winners if you’re a certain age. I don’t actually know the 1000 ones, but there should probably be some exemptions as well for 500s.”
Taylor Fritz vs Aleksandar Vukic Washington Open match stats
Sam Querrey backed Fritz’s decision to play Eastbourne right before Wimbledon, and it was a decision that seemingly paid dividends.
He won the tournament for the fourth time in his career, carrying that momentum into the grass court Grand Slam.
Taylor FritzAleksandar Vukic28Winners153/4 (75%)Break points converted0/1 (0%)12/20 (60%)2nd serve return points won6/15 (40%)11Aces933/48 (69%)First serve32/52 (62%)29/33 (88%)1st serve points won21/32 (66%)9/15 (60%)2nd serve points won8/20 (40%)2Double faults111/32 (34%)1st serve return points won4/33 (12%)14Unforced errors181/1 (100%)Break points saved1/4 (25%)1/1 (100%)Net points won0/2 (0%)Taylor Fritz vs Aleksandar Vukic Washington Open match stats by significance (ATP stats)
But there could come a time when his busy schedule really catches up with him, which is worrying as the US Open nears.
Fritz is by no means the only player to have experienced injuries this season amid the busy calendar, with Holger Rune withdrawing from Washington to continue the worrying trend.