Geneva Open Round-Up as Taylor Fritz stunned, comeback Casper Ruud starts title defence

Thursday, 23 May 2024 at 01:04

The Geneva Open will conclude its day finally shortly when Novak Djokovic completes his tie against Yannick Hanfmann and Denis Shapovalov takes on Tallon Griekspoor. But two of the other big names were in action on Wednesday afternoon with mixed fortunes.

Taylor Fritz had a similar mission to Novak Djokovic albeit he was looking to continue form rather than spark it as he had two latter stage runs in Rome and Madrid. But this mission was hoisted to the ground by Alex Michelsen who continues to rise.

Michelsen secured a second top 20 win on Wednesday at the Geneva Open taking down Fritz in the second round 6-4, 4-6, 7-5. He adds to his win over Alex de Minaur in Los Cabos. He squandered two match points on Fritz serve at 5-3 and then two on his own serve at 5-4 in the third set before he finally sealed the win.

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It has been a summer of firsts for the 19-year-old who won his first match on clay in Munich in April during a tournament where Fritz form sparked into life. He reached the final of that tournament losing to Jan-Lennard Struff. But he found a way into his maiden Quarter-Final on clay sealing a two hour and 41 minute win in their first ever Head to Head meeting. He will now play Tomas Machac after the Czech ace defeated Nicolas Moreno de Alboran who is an American qualifier 4-6, 7-5, 6-0.

Other victors included Sebastian Baez who has starred on clay this season winning in Rio and Santiago and earned a tour-leading 19th win on the surface during this season. He saw off the returning Roberto Carballes Baena 6-3, 6-0. He now faces Casper Ruud. But it was nearly Sebastian Ofner.

Ruud went 4-6 down against the Austrian as he looked to return to winning ways after being defeated by Miomir Kecmanovic last week in Rome. But he romped home from there after a poor opening set. He won the next two sets at a loss of only four games and now looks ahead to a top Quarter-Final clash in the Swiss city. With Roland Garros around the corner, it is mixed fortunes for the big names.