Fritz earns 250th win, seals SF spot in Madrid

It was double delight for Taylor Fritz on Wednesday at the Mutua Madrid Open, where he earned his 250th tour-level win to reach his first ATP Masters 1000 semi-final of the season.

The World No. 13 battled hard to move past Argentine Francisco Cerundolo 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 after one hour and 46 minutes in the Spanish capital.

"I returned really well in the first set, put a lot of balls in play," Fritz said. "To be honest he was making some mistakes so it made me look a lot better and I was finding some balls to attack on for sure. The second set and third set, I feel he got a lot more solid. He was not giving me anything for free and it was really hard to hit through him and find balls to attack on. He was getting the backhand through the court.

"It was tough to look for forehands. It was really tough from the ground but I just had to hang in the match with my serve and fight through some points even though I didn't feel super comfortable. I took my chance when I got it."

Milestone moment for USA's No.1 🥇@Taylor_Fritz97 | @MutuaMadridOpen | #MMOPEN pic.twitter.com/TrHUS1PdLE

— ATP Tour (@atptour) May 1, 2024

The American dominated the first set on Manolo Santana Stadium, not facing a break point to soar ahead in 28 minutes. After losing the second set, Fritz gained the decisive break of an evenly poised match in the eighth game of the third set before holding serve to win.

The 26-year-old hit with aggression and was the more consistent in lengthy exchanges to level the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series at 1-1, avenging his 2023 Roland Garros third-round defeat.

"The bounces are still very high, so it works great for my forehand," Fritz said on the conditions. "I can get it up on people and set it up to be aggressive on people. It helps my serve. I felt it was slow tonight. It was my first match at night and felt like a different tournament that I had been playing. The day conditions are great for me to serve and attack."

Fritz has now reached the semi-finals at an ATP Masters 1000 event for four consecutive seasons, highlighted by his title run in Indian Wells in 2022. He will next face seventh seed Andrey Rublev.

Fritz has performed impressively on clay this season, having advanced to the title match in Munich last month. The 12th seed, who is seeking his maiden tour-level crown on the surface, has also downed seeds Sebastian Baez and Hubert Hurkacz in the Spanish capital.

Fritz is just the third American man to reach the semi-finals in Madrid and the first since Robby Ginepri advanced to the stage in 2005. Andre Agassi lifted the trophy in 2002 and lost in the last four in 2002.

Cerundolo was trying to reach his 10th tour-level semi-final and second at ATP Masters 1000 level after Miami in 2022. The No. 21 PIF ATP Rankings upset World No. 5 Alexander Zverev in the fourth round for his biggest win of the year.