"First match on clay, can't complain" - Fritz after strong start in Houston

After a hugely successful month of March on the U.S. coasts, Taylor Fritz showed that his big game is also a perfect fit for Texas.

On Thursday at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship, the World No. 13 American made a winning clay-court debut for the season with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Alejandro Tabilo. It was a superb display from Fritz against an opponent who did extremely well in South America on clay. The American was pretty happy about the result considering it went smoother than expected:

"I felt like tonight was going to be a really tough match, given he's done really well on clay. It was my first match [on clay]. I'm pretty happy with how I played. I can't complain, I got out of that pretty solid."

Fritz joins fellow Americans Frances Tiafoe and John Isner in the next round flying the American flag high in Texas. The crowd is used to native winners and they will expect one of them to clinch the trophy.