Tennis sinner beats defending champion Fritz in Indian Wells | WKZO | Everything Kalamazoo

(Reuters) – Italy’s Jannik Sinner ousted defending champion Taylor Fritz 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in Indian Wells on Thursday and will face either top seed Carlos Alcaraz or Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime for a spot in the play finals.

The 21-year-old Sinner was sharp from the start, hitting an early break of serve and repelling a break point to win the opener behind his solid baseline game.

Fourth seeded Fritz responded in the second, breaking Sinner at set point with a backhand winner that got the crowd on their feet.

An exchange of breaks started the third and Fritz hit a forehand winner for a 4-3 lead, but the 11th seeded Sinner took control from there.

He leveled at 4-4 with an athletic overhead, broke for a 5-4 advantage and fired a serve Fritz couldn’t handle on match point.

“I just tried to play pretty aggressively, which I did,” said Sinner, who booked his first semi-final at the Masters 1000 tournament.

“Of course I’m very happy with the performance. Playing against Taylor is never easy. I lost to him here two years ago. He loves the conditions here so I’m very happy I found a way today.”

(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles; Editing by Peter Rutherford)