Tennis fans had to wait some 15 hours for top men’s seed Taylor Fritz and three-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray to finally take the court after rain canceled all of Thursday night’s action at the D.C. Open.
For those that came back Friday afternoon, the match was worth the wait.
Murray and Fritz put on a spectacular, three-hour performance in front of a full mid-day crowd, with Fritz outlasting a spirited Murray 6-7 (2), 6-3, 6-4.
“In comparison to where my game was last year when I played Taylor, I was in a pretty bad place when I played him in Canada. I really wasn’t feeling good with my game. So my game is in a better place,” Murray said. “I’ve made some improvements.”
Shotmaking was abundant in spades between the two across the sun-drenched court. Fritz had three set points in the first, but Murray commanded his forehand deliberately and precisely in the final games and the tiebreak. After 1:27, two forehand errors by Fritz allowed Murray to serve out the last two points and take the set. The set was disrupted after the fourth game by climate change protesters in the upper deck, which caused a delay of about seven minutes.
“It was extremely humid at the beginning of the match, and then it seemed to change a little bit,” Murray said. “It became hotter once the clouds sort of went away and the sun came out. It felt like it became warmer but maybe not quite as humid.”
Fritz settled himself in the second, taking the first three games en route to forcing a third set in only 38 minutes. Three of Fritz’s five service games in the set only required the minimum four points to win.
“There wasn’t so many opportunities in the second, but he took his break point when he got it, and I lost a short point you’re going to win probably nine times out of ten,” Murray said.
The punching and counterpunching continued in the third, with neither man yielding. Fritz got the first and only break in the set at the most opportune time and was able to serve out the match in the next game to claim his quarterfinal spot.
“He’s one of the better hard court players in the world. Certainly had my chances to win today … but obviously you want to be getting through those matches,” Murray said.
Women’s No. 1 seed Jessica Pegula had to come back and play first in the afternoon after completing the final match before rain halted play Thursday. As Murray expressed, Friday saw more traditional Washington humidity than in previous days, and Pegula dropped the first set to Elina Svitolina but fought through to claim her ticket to the semifinals, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
“It’s tough when the balls get heavy in this humidity and you’re serving, you don’t get a lot of free points on your serve and it’s hard to win those free points,” Pegula said. “You’ve really got to use your legs a lot more, get a little bit more height over the net, because everything starts landing shorter and it gets harder to make the ball. It also made the rallies a lot longer because we couldn’t quite hit through the court as much.”
Svitolina saved two match points serving down 3-5 in the deciding set, but Pegula served out the next game to advance.
“She was still playing good. She started serving really well there,” Pegula said. “I felt like I wasn’t getting a lot of, until the game before, I think the 5-3 game, where I had chances. So I was like, ‘Okay, I need to keep holding.’”
The win is Pegula’s 11th all-time in Washington, tied for second among women’s players in the event’s history, and secures her moving up one spot to No. 3 in the next WTA world rankings.
“Being here, it’s pretty cool to come back here and always feel like I can play good tennis and have good results. So yeah, it’s fun to play here, so I’m glad I’m still around,” Pegula said.
She’ll next play No. 4 seed Maria Sakkari, who had a marathon day.
The Greek played her suspended second-round match at noon — her first of the tournament due to having a bye — and beat Canadian Leylah Fernandez in straight sets before returning to court only a handful of hours later for her quarterfinal against American Madison Keys.
“I’m actually feeling good. You know, back home I train twice a day for longer than I played today. So I’m kind of used to it,” Sakkari said. “It was a great day. I played great, and I’m very excited to be in another semifinal.”
The quick turnaround was no problem for Sakkari, who needed only 1:14 to dispatch the seventh-seed Keys, 6-3, 6-3. For Sakkari, it’s her sixth semifinal of 2023 and sixth career appearance in a hard-court semifinal, equaling her best result on the surface.
“Maybe I’ll spend a little bit more time with with the physios and just, you know, have an early early dinner early,” Sakkari said of preparing for the semifinal. “I don’t think it’s gonna be early [now], but have dinner in the room and just try and get as much sleep as I can.”
Also on the women’s side, Liudmila Samsonova of Russia continued her march to a repeat title in Washington, beating Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk 6-4, 6-2. She’s the only remaining former D.C. champion, man or woman, in the field.
No. 5 seed Grigor Dimitrov got the benefit of being the first man into the D.C. semifinal round and an additional day of rest after his opponent, 13-seed Ugo Umbert of France, withdrew before their quarterfinal match due to a left leg injury.
The resumption of two unfinished matches saw Australian Jordan Thompson knock off 11th-seeded American Chris Eubanks in straight sets, 6-2, 6-2, and No. 12 seed Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands held off Frenchman Gael Monfils 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.
• George Gerbo can be reached at ggerbo@washingtontimes.com.
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