At the Atlanta Open on Sunday, Taylor Fritz defeated Australian Aleksandar Vukic 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-4 to claim his sixth career victory.
Having won the Delray Beach championship in February, the top seed and highest-ranked American at No. 9 warmed up for the U.S. Open with his second win of the season on hard courts.
He reached the final without losing a set, and when Vukic served to tie the score at 6-6 in the second, he had two match opportunities and seemed to be on his way to a straightforward victory. However, the Australian wiped them out and won the tiebreaker to send the match into a decisive set.
The 25-year-old Fritz came back to win the third and denied Vukic his maiden ATP Tour triumph.
The ATP rankings for the 27-year-old Vukic, who attended Illinois during his university career, will see him reach a career-high No. 62. A win would have allowed him to move up into the top 50.
