Nikoloz Basilashvili takes down Taylor Fritz for the Indian Wells final

Nikoloz Basilashvili will face Cameron Norrie in the BNP Paribas Masters final after a great win over Taylor Fritz 7-6(5) 6-3.

The first set was a brilliant set tennis-wise albeit a bit lacklustre on the excitement part. From the start, both players seemed to be engaged and focused. Neither moved away from their usual style with both being more on the aggressive side. Fritz was serving very aggressively which caused him to miss a lot of first serves hitting them below 60 %. His opponent was much better in hitting his first serves but Fritz converted the first serves into points much better (88 > 68 per cent).

Basilashvili was much better on his 2nd serve than Fritz who lost most of those points. Either way, we ended up in a tiebreak after Fritz failed to break Basilashvili on two separate occasions missing out on 3 break points. The tiebreak was another close one with both players having good and bad moments. Basilashvili was a bit sharper and two terrible errors from Fritz lost him the tiebreak 5-7.

The 2nd set opened with both players once again having no issues in winning their service game. The recipe was simple: you hit a great first serve you win the point, if not you will face some troubles. Basilashvili was once again a bit sharper from the baseline with Fritz not quite as sound as in previous days. After Fritz squandered early break points he found himself in a hole not long after trailing 2-4 after a shaky service game.

Basilashvili quickly confirmed the break taking a 5-2 lead and from there it was a smooth ride towards a 6-3 2nd set finish. A great performance by Basilashvili who was better when it mattered the most. He won the first set without having a break point and that shifted the momentum even more in his favour. Fritz was not as good as in previous days and he lost the match in key rallies. He was 0/7 on break points with three of those being sets points in the first set.