Fritz has enjoyed a solid fall swing, leading Team World to victory in Laver Cup and finishing runner-up to Carlos Alcaraz at the Kinoshita Group Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo. After suffering an early Shanghai exit to Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, the world No. 4 arrived in Basel looking to confirm a spot at the Nitto ATP Finals for a second straight year. Runner-up in Turin last year, Fritz is currently fifth in the PIF ATP Race to Turin and has played strong tennis indoors, but found himself in trouble early on against Vacherot.
The unseeded 26-year-old broke Fritz twice to claim the opening set and roared back from 5-3 down in the second, saving four set points on en route to a tiebreaker.
Fritz took another big lead in the Sudden Death, winning the first four points to ultimately open a 6-1 advantage; Vacherot saved three more set points but couldn’t close the gap against the American, who leveled the contest at one set apiece.
“From the second-set tiebreaker onwards, I started to feel a lot better,” Fritz said. “I think in the first set, maybe not feeling the best on certain points. But from that second-set breaker, did a great job and played about as good as I could with big serve, big forehand. I saved myself for a really crucial point in the third.”
