Delray Beach | Fritz sails into final

The top seeded Taylor Fritz took the first five games and six of the last eight to defeat his American compatriot Mackenzie McDonald to reach the ATP Delray Beach Open final where he faces the fourth seed, Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic — who battled past Moldovia’s Radu Albot — for the title.

I love the moment, I love competing in finals, so I know I’ll play a good game tomorrow. Taylor Fritz

The 25-year-old Fritz pounded nine aces past his opponent ranked 56, in a semi-final which lasted 95-minutes to give himself the chance of a fifth career title.

“I feel really good. I said it after my last match: I’m just playing better and better each match since I’ve been here,” Fritz said later. “I love the moment, I love competing in finals, so I know I’ll play a good game tomorrow.”

Fritz jumped out to a 5-0 lead to start the match before McDonald worked his way back in.

“I just came out with a lot of energy. I was being really aggressive in the beginning. Any time I got some time for the ball to settle, I was ripping it,” Fritz added. “And then it got a little closer, went down the break in the second. Maybe got away from that a little bit. In the end, just tried to get that back, continued being aggressive like I was in the beginning.”

Miomir Kecmanovic battled his way into the final

Meanwhile Kecmanovic required nearly two and half hours to dispatch Albot 7-6(8) 3-6 6-2.

Albot, whose only title came at Delray Beach in 2019, was up a break in the third set before the Serb rallied to capture his 100th career ATP match victory.

“I was a little bit nervous throughout the match, but luckily I was able to stay calm when it mattered, play good and I’m happy I was able to come through,” Kecmanovic said.

Britain’s Cameron Norrie, last year’s Delray Beach champion, skipped this year’s event to play the Argentina Open, where he will meet world number two Carlos Alcaraz of Spain in Sunday’s final.