The highest-seeded American man at the U.S. Open is on to the quarterfinals once again.
Taylor Fritz bounced back from a first-set deficit to grind out a 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 upset victory over the No. 8-seeded Casper Ruud of Norway inside a humid closed-roof Louis Armstrong Stadium on Sunday, securing his spot in the final eight for the second year in a row.
Ruud may have shown more power at times, but Fritz started putting the ball exactly where he wanted it more often than not to set up a meeting with either fellow American Brandon Nakashima or world No. 4 Alexander Zverev on Tuesday.
“I think last time I went into the U.S. Open in 2022 saying I think that I’m a contender and I can win, I lost in the first round,” Fritz said in his post-match news conference. “Obviously, the draw, it’s impossible to not know that there’s more of an opportunity with how the draw has opened up. It’s still the same as it’s been for me. Take it one match at a time. Worry about the person that’s in front of me, and we’ll go from there.
“But it’s been a good week so far. The success in slams has been nice, but I am a little bit sick of just making it to the quarterfinals, and I definitely want to go further.”
Ruud broke Fritz’s serve for the first time in the eighth game of the first set, which teed up Ruud to easily take the opening frame.
The second set saw Fritz turn on his service game, however, with 10 aces on the way to 24 in the match.
Even though he lost a golden opportunity in the sixth game, when Ruud committed a couple double-faults to set the American up for a break point he couldn’t convert, the 26-year-old never lost his head.
The crowd in Flushing Meadows let Fritz know they were with him when he whiffed on his first set point. A “Let’s Go Taylor!” chant then broke out just before Ruud committed a double-fault to hand Fritz the second set.
That’s when Fritz started flashing some craftiness with his shots, pinpointing open areas of the court and catching Ruud on the run at times.
Commanding a 3-0 lead in the third set and then jumping out to a 4-0 lead in the fourth, Fritz had completely taken control of the match in the back end of it. A 106-mph ace, which wasn’t even close to his fastest of the match at 131 mph, sealed the win for Fritz.
Fritz is not alone on the quest to end a 21-year drought since the last American man won the U.S. Open, but he is one of the favorites to do so.
Noting that they all share the burden of the pressure, Fritz said they all push each other to be better.
“I thought I did well to kind of get through some tight service games in the second,” said Fritz, who is the first American man to reach three major quarterfinals in a year since Andy Roddick in 2007. “Stay in it, apply some scoreboard pressure until I was able to get the second, and then start to play better, find rhythm, do things a lot better in the third and fourth.
“I felt like the first set and a half, it was tough. He was playing really well. Serving super high percentage. I felt like I was getting outplayed. I was just able to keep it close until things kind of started going my way.”
