Jannik Sinner battled past defending champion Taylor Fritz 6-4 4-6 6-4 becoming the first Italian player to reach the quarter finals in the 47-year history of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells.
Sinner improved to 3-3 in his past six matches against top 5 opponents. The Italian player ended the winning streak of Fritz, who was on a winning streak of nine consecutive matches and was defending his last year’s title.
Sinner has reached his second Masters 1000 semifinal two years after his run to the final at the 2021 Miami Open, where he finished runner-up to Hubert Hurkacz.
Sinner earned the break in the first game to win the opening set 6-4. Fritz converted the first break point of the second set, which doubled as the set point.
Sinner started the third set with an immediate break in the first game. Fritz broke straight back in the second game to draw level to 1-1 before saving three break points from 0-40 down. The US player fended off a break point with a backhand drop shot winner to hold serve in the seventh game for 4-3, but Sinner earned the decisive break in the ninth game to take a 5-4 lead. Sinner sealed the win with a love hold after 2 hours and 17 minutes.
Sinner set up a semifinal match against Carlos Alcaraz, who beat Felix Auger Aliassime 6-4 6-4. Alcaraz and Sinner are 2-2 in their head-to-head matches. Sinner beat Alcaraz in the Round of 16 at Wimbledon in four sets and in the final in Umag last year. Alcaraz won an epic five set match in the quarter final at the 2022 US Open.
“I just tried to play aggressively, which I have done. I am obviously very happy about the performance. Playing against Taylor is never easy. I lost against him two years ago here. He loves the conditions here so I am very happy that I found the way here. I think the wind came a little bit at some points, especially in the second set. He started to move me around little bit more. I think we both have very similar play styles. We both try to be very aggressive from the baseline, so I tried to mix things up a little bit. I am happy with how I played the third set”, said Sinner.
