Fritz stuns Shelton in thriller to reach Halle semis

American Taylor Fritz battled past Ben Shelton in three sets on Friday to reach the semi-finals in Halle, just five days after losing the title match to his compatriot in Stuttgart, News.Az reports, citing AFP.

World number nine Fritz won 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (10/8), 7-6 (7/3) in a match lasting two hours and 45 minutes at the traditional Wimbledon warm-up ATP event.

Shelton, the world number five, had defeated the 29-year-old Fritz to claim his first career grass-court title at the Stuttgart ATP tournament last Sunday.

The match was a clash between two American big servers, with neither player managing to break serve throughout the contest, meaning each set was decided in tiebreaks.

Shelton took the opening set, while Fritz, a noted grass-court specialist, responded by taking the second set after saving a match point to force a deciding set.

During the third set, Shelton fell on the grass midway through the set and limped back to his bench, but he was able to continue playing.

As the match progressed, Fritz became increasingly confident and eventually controlled the decisive third-set tiebreak to secure victory.

Fritz will next face either French Open champion and top seed Alexander Zverev or Raphael Collingon in the semi-finals.

Later on Friday, world number four Felix Auger-Aliassime will play Frances Tiafoe, while fourth seed Daniil Medvedev is set to face Daniel Altmaier in the remaining quarter-final matches.

News.Az 

By Nijat Babayev