Roberto Bautista Agut, the Noventi Open No. 7 seed, ended Taylor Fritz’s second visit to Halle in one hour and twenty-four minutes. The first set score was grass court close, 7-6. In the second set, the Spanish clay courter gave the Southern Californian, (actually Rancho Palos Verdes is where he resides), a dose of clay court reality, closing out the match, 6-0.
With the victory, Bautista Agut made his career record against the 21-year old, 4-1. Strangely, the only defeat the 31-year-old has suffered was on his favourite surface. Fritz was 6-7, 6-3, 6-4 better at this year’s Lyon Open.
Continuing the “ain’t it strange” theme, Fritz would seem to have the perfect game for grass success. He utilized a mammoth serve and a knockout forehand to reach the 2014 Wimbledon Junior Boys’ semifinals and to win the US Open Junior Boys’ title in 2015 but has a 4-12 ATP career record on grass. Equally bizarre, given that clay is his “fav”, Bautista Agut’s victory today gave him a 25-11 record on the lawns. It is even more surprising to note that his first ATP tour singles title came at the 2014 Topshelf Open, a grass court tournament played at ‘s-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands.
Bautista Agut is making his third Halle appearance. In 2018, he was a semi-finalist, but had to retire against Borna Coric of Croatia. The sequence of what took place was curious…. In a baseline exchange, with the score 2-2 in the first set he ran to his left and hit a backhand, then trying to move to the center of the court, he slipped while attempting to move to his right. He went down, an initially grabbed his right hip then rolled on his side, clutching his left hip. He took a medical timeout and was treated off -court. He returned to finish serving and held to make the score 3-2, then he walked to the net and told Coric he couldn’t continue. The official (but “unofficial because in truth no information was provided) reason for his retirement was an injury to his left hip. (Coric went on to defeat Roger Federer 7-6 3-6 6-2 in last year’s Halle final.)
In 2017, Alexander Zverev brought Bautista Agut’s winning success to a halt, 6-7 7-6 6-1 in the quarterfinals.
Against Fritz, Bautista Agut , who never faced a break point on his serve, took advantage of three of the ten opportunities that came his way. He won 58% of the points played, which translates into 78 of 134, and dropped Fritz’s Halle record to 0-2. In 2016, Yūichi Sugita of Japan sent him packing 7-6, 2-6, 6-3 in another first round to forget.
In his next match, Bautista Agut faces Richard Gasquet of France, against whom he has a 2-1 record. The last time they tangled was 2015 in Tokyo, which means that four years later their meeting should be an excitement filled contest.
