British Wimbledon – the fastest in Wimbledon history after dealing with an opponent’s 153 mph serve – and after a one-night postponement, American Taylor Fritz won the fifth set, finishing 6-7 (8), 6-4, 7-6 (6) with a first round win of 6-4 with a first round of 6-4.
Fritz, the 2024 US Open runner-up, not only would have to turn things around after dropping two sets of opening, but he was two points out of a loss on a half-dozen occasions on a four-set tiebreaker on Monday night.
“It’s a really crazy game,” No. 5 seed Fritz said Tuesday after finishing his victory at the first court. “I thought I was coming to an end last night with the fourth set tiebreaker, but he came back to me with the first two tiebreakers so I thought I probably had one inside me.
The match was suspended due to a curfew at All England club, which will stop play at 11pm after Fritz forced his fifth set at about 10:15pm on Monday.
It was clear that Fritz liked to continue, but that wasn’t up to him.
“I mean, that’s clearly not ideal,” the 27-year-old Californian said Tuesday. “I think it makes sense not to play the fifth set because I felt I didn’t have time to complete the fifth set.
“I obviously wanted to play it, but either way, I was confident I would do it today (and) as well.”
After all, he only needed 35 minutes to finish his job in a contest featuring 66 total aces on Tuesday.
In the third point of Monday’s match, Mpetshi Perricard (21-year-old 6-foot-8 Frenchman) hit a serve at 153 mph, covering an old tournament vest of 148 mph in 2010 by Taylor Dent.
Fritz lost in the first round at the French Open last month, but he’s far more comfortable on a smooth, speedy grass court that rewards his big serve and forehand strength. He arrived in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon in 2022 and last year, and took off his fourth Eastbourne open title last week.
“This is a recent result for me, it’s a huge, huge week for me, so I was thinking about it in this game,” he said. “It put a lot of pressure on me because I didn’t want to go out in the first round.”
In other matches on Tuesday, top-ranked Jannik Sinner got off to an ideal start by beating the Wimbledon campaign 6-4, 6-3, 6-0 in all Italian matches.
The three-time Grand Slam champion, who lost Carlos Alcaraz’s five-set French Open Finals, is sought for his first Wimbledon title. He was a semi-finalist for the All England Club in 2023.
“The first match isn’t easy, so I’m very pleased with my performance,” he said in an on-court interview. “This is a new tournament, a new opportunity, a new challenge. We have one opponent at a time.”
The Sinner will play Australia’s Alexander Vukic in the second round.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
