Fritz moves on as Auger-Aliassime crashes out in Miami

Taylor Fritz extended his great run on North American soil by battling past the ever-tricky Kukushkin 6-3 5-7 6-3 while Kecmanovic stunned Auger-Aliassime 6-4 6-2.

Taylor Fritz played his first match since lifting the Indian Wells trophy a couple of days ago and the American proved better while still having some issues. It was expected to a degree with such a victory usually being quite emotionally draining. Fritz rolled early on taking the opening set quite easily with 6-3. Things went a bit differently in the 2nd set as Kukushkin put up a good fight.

He held his serve rather well the entire set and did not allow Fritz much. The American eventually stumbled a bit towards eh end of the set losing it 5-7. The loss of set shook him a bit and he entered the final set a bit slow. Kukushkin tried to push his opponent but Fritz weathered the storm.

Eventually, Fritz settled and broke his opponent one and then one more time to close it out with 6-3. He won't be joined in the next round by Auger-Aliassime who continued to struggle after his fabulous start to the season. The last couple of weeks have been quite tough on the Canadian and his struggles continued here with another loss.

The loss is not terribly upsetting as it came against Kecmanovic who is having a bonkers year so far. The Serbian is playing on a top 15 level right now and if he continues like that, he might just end up being there. He won 6-4 6-2.