Indian Wells has lost its defending champion. And a little his favorite since Taylor Fritz, winner here last year of his first Masters 1000, is a native of California. The American resisted for a long time against Jannik Sinner who was more dominating in the big duels from the baseline that the two men fought. But he ended up admitting defeat by giving up his service at the end of the third set (6-4, 4-6, 6-4). The Italian will play a Masters 1000 semi-final for the second time in his career (after Miami 2021).
The 13th player in the world picked up his rival a little cold by taking his serve from the start of the match on a violent forehand which cracked Fritz. Unable to make up the delay, the American started chasing after the score, giving up the first set. The second was heading towards a decisive game with slaps in the forehand and violent backhands when the Italian experienced an absence on his face-off. At 5-4 Fritz, he made two errors in the forehand then cracked on an uncrossed forehand before seeing the American pass it when he was at the net.
Not unlucky to equalize at one set everywhere on his only break point of this set, Fritz then lost his service from the start, again but this time managed to steal Sinner’s in stride. He then defended like hell on his face-offs, showing himself to be impeccable in service. On his last chance, the Italian signed a nice comeback to make the difference and fly away a few moments later towards the semi-finals.