Hubert Hurkacz and Taylor Fritz have won their first victory on the second day of the Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan.
All four players of the afternoon had started the second edition of the Junior World Championships on Tuesday with a defeat – Hurkacz and Fritz made it better now.
The 21-year-old Hurkacz from Poland starts strongly against his opponent Jaume Munar from Spain – in the end it became a tight box, also because Munar was more offensive in the meantime.
But too late: Hurkacz won with 4:2, 4:2, 2:4, 3:4 (5), 4:1 and showed a well thought-out attacking tennis. Hurkacz managed the decisive break at 2:1 in set five, in the following service game he turned a 0:40 and fended off four breakballs in a row (at 40:40 the next point decides in Milan) – the preliminary decision.
Then the US American Taylor Fritz lived up to his position as favourite against wildcard player Liam Caruana, the number 622 in the world – even though the Italian played a strong game. 1:4, 4:1, 4:3 (9), 4:2 it was said at the end for the world ranking-47.
In the evening, the winners of the first match day will meet: top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas will play Frances Tiafoe, Alex de Minaur will play Andrey Rublev.
Here is an overview of the groups of the ATP Next Gen Finals