Fritz loses on day of shocks at Japan Open

TOKYO: US Open finalist Taylor Fritz crashed out of the Japan Open in the first round on Thursday and Frances Tiafoe and Stefanos Tsitsipas joined him on a day of shocks in Tokyo.

Top seed Fritz, who this month became the first American man to reach a Grand Slam final since 2009, was bundled out 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 by France´s Arthur Fils. It came just hours after number seven seed Tiafoe, who lost to Fritz in the US Open semi-finals, was eliminated with a 7-5, 6-3 loss to fellow American Brandon Nakashima.

Greece´s Tsitsipas, the number four seed, went out with a 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 defeat to American qualifier Alex Michelsen. World number seven Fritz won the Japan Open title in 2022 but met his match in the energetic 20-year-old Fils. Fritz needed a medical time-out to deal with a back issue during the second set.

He could not recover as world number 24 Fils closed out the match in just over two hours to set up a second-round match with Italy´s Matteo Berrettini. Fritz played at the Laver Cup in Berlin after the US Open and said his schedule had been “a lot lately”. “I obviously would have liked more time to prepare but that being said, I actually feel like I played a pretty good match and a pretty good level,” he said.