WASHINGTON DC, Aug 1 (Reuters) \u2013 American third seed Taylor Fritz overcame a second-set wobble to beat compatriot Brandon Nakashima 6-3 3-6 6-2 on Saturday and reach the Washington Open final.<\/p>\n
The world number 10 advanced to the 23rd \u200bATP final of his career after striking 13 aces and 24 winners \u200cwhile committing 16 unforced errors, compared with Nakashima\u2019s 27.<\/p>\n
Fritz took control of a tight opening set when he moved 4-3 ahead before earning the decisive break. The 28-year-old then served out the set in 34 minutes.<\/p>\n
Nakashima, seeking his first ATP 500 final, responded strongly in the second set. He \u200cbroke Fritz \u200bto go 3-1 up, held to love for a \u20605-2 lead and closed out \u2060the set two games later to force a decider.<\/p>\n
Fritz regained control from the outset in the third set, breaking in the second game before holding to love for a 3-0 advantage. He maintained the pressure to seal victory and book \u200bhis place in the final, where he will face Spain\u2019s Rafael Jodar.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrabbing that break in the third set made the difference,\u201d Fritz said. \u201cIt was really a narrow \u2060margin the whole time. Not a lot of chances \u2060either way.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst set I took my chance, in the second \u200bset he did. I played a really good break point in the third set, and \u200bI dug very deep to just keep holding.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later on Saturday, Jodar fought \u200cback from a set down to clinch a 6-7(6) 6-4 6-4 victory over Chile\u2019s Alejandro Tabilo.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I was playing well, having opportunities,\u201d Jodar said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAccepting all the moments that I didn\u2019t break in the first set and the beginning of the second set, \u2060accepting those moments helped me get the break in the second set.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom then, I started playing with more rhythm with my serve, so mentally I was very good today.\u201d<\/p>\n
The win \u2060was a reminder of Jodar\u2019s \u200cremarkable rise over the past few months, with Tabilo having \u2060won the last meeting between the pair 6-1 6-2 in \u200bMarch at \u200cIndian Wells.<\/p>\n
At the time, Jodar sat outside the top 100, \u200bbut an \u2060impressive run during the clay season, which included his first ATP title at the Grand Prix Hassan II in Morocco, has catapulted him up the rankings.<\/p>\n
Courtesy of his performance in Washington, the 19-year-old will break into the top 20 when the latest world rankings are released on Monday.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Angelica Medina in Mexico City and Aadi Nair in Bengaluru; \u200bEditing by Kate Mayberry)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON DC, Aug 1 (Reuters) \u2013 American third seed Taylor Fritz overcame a second-set wobble to beat compatriot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":841806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-841805","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\/841805","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=841805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/841806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=841805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=841805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=841805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}