Taylor Fritz says Cincinnati conditions are worst he has played in

American No 1 Taylor Fritz was relieved to come through his match against Czech Jiri Lehecka in Cincinnati.

Fritz won a tense first set tiebreaker before commanding the second set with a one set lead in the bank.

That tiebreak win was crucial as conditions in Cincinnati were extremely challenging.

Lehecka’s top finish this year was a quarter-final appearance at the Australian Open but he remains a dangerous young player.

A very fast court combined with gusts of wind to make it hard for the players to get any serves in at all.

In the first-set tie-break, the American saved five set points before being given the set on his seventh set point when Lehecka double-faulted.

Fritz powered through the second set as he found rhythm on his first serve winning 12 of 13 points where he landed his opening delivery.

He felt the conditions were some of the most challenging he has played through.

“It was probably as hard as I had, just putting the ball into court,” Fritz said when asked about the fast conditions. “The courts are fast and bouncy… everything wants to fly and on top of that, everything is super windy. I was just trying to put the ball in court.

“I just had to feel it out at the beginning. As much as I wanted to pull the trigger on big points, if it is not there, it is not there, so you have to do what you feel comfortable and hit the ball you feel you can make under pressure.”

The win ensures that Fritz maintains his dominance over Lehecka in their head-to-head as he improves to 3-0 against the 2022 Next Gen ATP Finals runner-up.

Fritz, who reached the NATP Finals last four in 2022, is presently ranked ninth (2,515 points) in the ATP Live Race To Turin. He’ll be looking to cut the gap on eighth-placed Casper Ruud (2,605) and seventh-placed Holger Rune (3,045 points) in Cincinnati, where he reached the quarter-finals last year. In Ohio, Ruud and Rune both enjoyed first-round byes due as they were among the top eight seeds.

This season, Fritz has a 29-8 record on hard courts, highlighted by title runs in Delray Beach and most recently in Atlanta.

Fellow American and Toronto Masters semi-finalist Tommy Paul joined his countryman Fritz in the second round after he bested Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic 7-5, 7-6(2) in one hour and 54 minutes.

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