Toronto
Fritz, Shelton take divergent night paths to Toronto R4
Second seed Fritz cruises, Shelton needs 5 MPs to prevail
August 02, 2025
Matthew Stockman/Getty Images
Taylor Fritz is seeking his third title of the season.
By ATP Staff
Exactly 30 days removed from their Wimbledon five-set thriller, Taylor Fritz avoided such theatrics in a rematch against Gabriel Diallo at the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers on Friday. Fritz, seeded second in Toronto, ousted the last remaining Canadian 6-4, 6-2.
Eyeing his second ATP Masters 1000 crown and first since his dream run at Indian Wells in 2022, Fritz appeared more comfortable in his second match of the week than his opener, after which he said, “Even in practice, I’ve had such a hard time just literally putting the ball in the court”.
The 27-year-old broke 6’8” Diallo’s serve to love in the opening game of the match and in the second set, earned his first of two breaks at 1-1 despite trailing 0/40 that game. Holding the advantage in forehand to forehand rallies, Fritz needed just 75 minutes to advance.
“I thought it was really important to not let him get back in. [If] he gets a break back, he gets fired up with the crowd, momentum kind of shifts. I felt like a lot could have changed if I let up on a service game,” said Fritz, who dropped just three points behind his first serve (23/26). “Even the games that I didn’t serve my best in, I felt like I backed it up really well from the baseline, so I’m happy with that.”
The No. 4 player in the PIF ATP Rankings, Fritz is now 34-13 on the season, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index, highlighted by triumphs at the grass events in Stuttgart and Eastbourne. Fritz this fortnight is attempting to complete the set of quarter-finals at all nine ATP Masters 1000 events.
Up next for Fritz is 19th seed Jiri Lehecka, the Czech whom the California native leads 3-0 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series. Sunday will mark their first meeting since 2023. Lehecka rallied past 15th seed Arthur Fils 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to advance.
Fourth seed Ben Shelton remained unbeaten against Brandon Nakashima, yet needed a gutsy 6-7(8), 6-2, 7-6(5) win to improve to 5-0 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series.
Shelton needed five match points to prevail after a topsy-turvy, two-hour, 36-minute battle. The lefty let slip two consecutive match points on return at 5-4 in the decider and was later forced to a tie-break, during which he hammered an ace down the T on the ad-side to seal the win.
“It was back and forth,” Shelton said. “There were a lot of huge moments, like being able to break back after getting broken in my first service game of the third set. I feel like I showed a lot of perseverance tonight.”
Into the fourth round of an ATP Masters 1000 event for the second time this season (Indian Wells QF), Shelton moved within one win of claiming his 100th tour-level victory. He will look to accomplish that feat against 13th seed Flavio Cobolli, who beat Fabian Marozsan 6-2, 4-6, 6-3. Shelton is competing this week at a career-high No. 7 in the PIF ATP Rankings.