Fritz keeps rolling in Washington as hard-court swing heats up
Big serves, brisk points, no drama. Taylor Fritz opened his DC Open campaign with a clean 6-3, 6-2 win over Aleksandar Vukic, then backed it up by taking out Matteo Arnaldi 6-3, 6-4 to book a quarterfinal spot. The top seed’s serve set the tone from the start—11 aces against Vukic, no breaks allowed, and the only break point he faced was erased without fuss. After a first-round bye, he never looked rushed.
It’s the same tempo he’s carried for two months. Since June, Fritz is 15-2 across surfaces, a run that includes title lifts in Stuttgart and Eastbourne and a lively Wimbledon semifinal. Now back on the North American hard courts, he’s trying to bottle that form for the US swing—Washington this week, then the bigger Masters events, and ultimately New York, where last season he played his way into his first Grand Slam final.
Against Vukic, Fritz leaned on first-strike tennis: heavy first serves, forehands into the open court, and short, tidy rallies. When Vukic tried to step inside the baseline, Fritz met him with depth and pace, forcing replies from awkward positions. The American kept the scoreboard moving, grabbed early leads in both sets, and protected serve with the kind of calm that leaves opponents guessing.
Arnaldi offered a different look—quicker feet, more counterpunch—but the match followed a similar pattern. Fritz held firm in the longer exchanges, picked his moments to attack, and used body serves to blunt the Italian’s return swings. No lulls, no lapses. Just steady, controlled pressure.
This is Fritz’s fifth trip to Washington, where his best previous result is a semifinal from 2023. The event suits his game: low-bouncing hard courts, quick enough for his serve and forehand to bite, but honest enough that baseline discipline still wins the tough points. And the crowds at Rock Creek Park do their part—loud, late, and fully leaning into the night sessions.
- Record since June: 15-2
- Washington results this week: def. Aleksandar Vukic 6-3, 6-2; def. Matteo Arnaldi 6-3, 6-4
- Aces vs. Vukic: 11
- Break points faced vs. Vukic: 1 (saved)
- Best Washington result: Semifinal (2023)
- Recent titles: Stuttgart, Eastbourne
For a top seed, weeks like this are about carrying habits more than chasing highlights—getting the first serve percentage into a safe zone, making the crosscourt forehand automatic, and turning half-chances into early breaks. Fritz checked those boxes through his first two matches and kept the physical load low, a quiet bonus in D.C.’s heat and humidity.
What Washington means in the run-up to New York
Since 2009, Washington has been an ATP 500, a serious stop with real ranking points and a useful read on who’s settling into the hard-court rhythm. The draw is deep, the conditions can be sticky, and the scheduling can test recovery. If your patterns hold here, they usually hold through Canada, Cincinnati, and into the US Open.
Fritz’s task is simple and hard at the same time: keep serving this well and avoid long, grinding nights. He’s won his opening matches without a dropped set, kept the return games high-percentage, and avoided unraveling in deuce games. That’s the formula he’ll try to copy in the quarterfinals, with the opponent still to be confirmed at the time of filing.
On the women’s side, Maria Sakkari knocked out No. 2 seed Emma Navarro 7-5, 7-6(1), using aggressive returns to keep Navarro off balance and pulling away in a clinical tiebreak. It’s familiar territory for Sakkari in Washington—she was the 2023 runner-up to Coco Gauff—and this win puts her right back in the mix as the draw tightens.
For the tournament itself, the storylines are clean: the top men’s seed is doing top-seed things, a former women’s finalist is building momentum, and the fans are getting a first real look at who’s ready for the hard-court grind. Washington rarely hands out easy wins. So far, Fritz has made them look that way.
