ATP Tournament in Houston, Quarter Finals, Friday, 08.04.2022
Only last Sunday the champion of the Masters of Miami was crowned, now finals are coming up again. This Friday, the ATP tournament in Houston will first look for the semi-finalists.
One of the top favourites: The winner of Indian Wells, who will now meet a Chilean who loves to play on the red clay. Read in my Garin Fritz tip why I can imagine a close, longer match here.
First a narrow five-set loss to Stefanos Tsitsipas at the Australian Open, then an acclaimed winner in Indian Wells. Taylor Fritz wants to crack the top 10 in the world this year.
The 24-year-old is currently ranked 13th and his great strength at 1.96m is, of course, his serve. However, while he sent players like Andrey Rublev and Rafael Nadal home in two sets in Indian Wells, things went much worse in Miami.
He still managed to beat Mihail Kukushkin and Tommy Paul, but Miomir Kecmanovic, who even caused winner Carlos Alcaraz big problems a little later, was obviously out of his league at 6-3, 1-4, 4-6.
In Houston, he is the top favourite for the title and therefore had to enter after a walk-through. He played his first match against Alejandro Tabilo and brought it home with a commanding 6-1, 6-4
Now he has to play Cristian Garin, the second Chilean, who they have never played against. He took five of six break chances against Tabile, and this was the key to his victory.
It is no secret that the US American prefers to serve on hard courts, which is probably why he has not yet achieved much in Houston. Four years ago, he made it to the semi-finals, but in the most recent edition in 2019, he was eliminated in Round 1.
Cristian Garin, unlike Taylor Fritz, quite likes playing on clay. He is the defending champion, three years ago he beat Casper Ruud in the final. He had to enter the tournament one round ahead of Fritz and had his problems.
His 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 defeat of Jack Sock was similar to the 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 defeat of Jordan Thompson. Garin lost the first set in each case, but then fought back all the stronger.
He gave away a total of 16 break chances to his two opponents, something he will not be able to afford against Fritz. Miami, Chile, Rio and Cordoba, since the Australian Open the Chilean has always failed at the opening hurdle.
That is exactly what he has now avoided once. In any case, he has not been in top form for a long time; his last really convincing tournament was eleven months ago in Madrid. There he beat Daniil Medvedev, among others.
My Garin Fritz Tip
After Cristian Garin’s recent performances, it definitely makes sense that the bookies are betting on Taylor Fritz. But I wouldn’t write Garin off completely, because after losing the first set he often fights his way back.
Since clay is not his favourite surface and Garin is the defending champion, I recommend the following tip:
We see more than 20.5 games!
