Top seed Taylor Fritz beat his close friend friend Tommy Paul 6-2 6-3 to become the second player in the history of the Delray Beach Open tournament to win two consecutive editions of this tournament following in the footsteps of Jason Stoltenberg, who this event twice in a row in 1996 and 1997.
Fritz saved all seven break points he faced in the match.
Fritz broke twice in the fourth and in the eighth games to win the first set 6-2.
Paul earned two break points in the fifth game of the second set, but Fritz held serve after four deuces to take a 3-2 lead. Fritz broke serve in the eighth game to take a 5-3 and held to love to seal the title.
Fritz leads 3-2 in his five head-to-head matches against Paul. “I had a long list of things I needed to do well, but I think a lot that went out of the window when we realized the conditions for the match, that it was going to be windy. On both sides I had different ideas of what I wanted to do because I was just limited with the wind. I tried to serve as best I could, when it got me out of some trouble. I started to find it at the end. It’s incredibly tough to play, do what you want to do when it’s windy like this”, said Fritz.
