The fifth-seeded Paul upset Fritz 6-4, 6-3 in just 76 minutes to dash the top seed\u2019s hopes of claiming his third title at the ATP 250 event.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last time we played was actually on this court, so it\u2019s cool to play 15 minutes from home against one of my closest friends, longtime friends,\u201d Paul said in his on-court interview. \u201cI heard a lot of American tennis chants today and I promise we love that stuff and we\u2019re trying really hard for you guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paul has known Fritz since they were juniors, won a bronze medal with his countryman at the 2024 Paris Olympics<\/a> in men\u2019s doubles and now is level with him in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series at 3-3 thanks to a clean performance in Florida.<\/p>\n \u201cIn terms of the match, I thought I moved really well. I thought I served really well on the tight points,\u201d Paul said. \u201cUsually if you hold serve, you\u2019ll be in the match and I found the way on some big break points and I was really happy with how I played today.\u201d<\/p>\n The 28-year-old will next play one of the fastest-rising stars on the ATP Tour, reigning Next Gen ATP Finals champion Learner Tien<\/a>, who rallied from a break down in the deciding set to eliminate 2018 Delray Beach champion Frances Tiafoe<\/a> 7-6(5), 3-6, 7-5.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s obviously really turned it on in the past year or so. He\u2019s undoubtedly one of the best players in the world now,\u201d Paul said. \u201cHe\u2019s an exciting player to watch. I haven\u2019t played him yet, so we\u2019ll see how he is to play, I\u2019m sure it\u2019s not going to be easy. But I\u2019m going to do everything I can to get ready for that match.\u201d<\/p>\n Sebastian Korda<\/a> held his nerve on Saturday at the Delray Beach Open<\/a>, delivering a composed performance to upset second seed Casper Ruud<\/a> 4-6, 6-2, 6-2.<\/p>\n With his two-hour, six-minute win over the Norwegian, the American advanced to his first semi-final at the tournament since 2021.<\/p>\n \u201cI tried battling as much as I could,\u201d Korda said. \u201cLuckily, I found some form and started playing really well after that [first set].\u201d<\/p>\n After an error-strewn opening set in which he hit 17 unforced errors, Korda took control of the match in the second set. He swung the momentum with a gutsy break at 3-2, fighting back from 40\/0 on Ruud\u2019s serve. He claimed another break in the eighth game, clinching the set emphatically with a forehand return winner. In the third set, he secured an early break with a stunning volley and finished having won 24 of 29 points at the net. The 25-year-old fired 10 aces and won 72 per cent (34\/47) of his first-serve points according to ATP Infosys Stats.<\/p>\n The American will face third seed Flavio Cobolli<\/a> for a place in the final. Cobolli defeated Coleman Wong<\/a> 7-5, 6-7(7), 6-2 in two hours and 14 minutes to deny the 21-year-old his first tour-level semi-final. <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Delray Beach Paul ousts top seed Fritz in Delray Beach, to face ‘undoubtedly one of best players in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489366,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-489365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\u201cATP\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/atp-no-1-club-banner-article.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n