By Shrivathsa Sridhar
LONDON, July 2 (Reuters) – Last year’s semi-finalist Taylor Fritz continued his smooth progress at Wimbledon by mowing down fellow American Patrick Kypson 6-2 6-2 7-5 to make the third round on Thursday and remain on course for a maiden Grand Slam title.
Fritz recorded his best result at the All England Club 12 months ago and the sixth seed followed up his straight-sets win over lucky loser Dusan Lajovic in the last round with another convincing display to emerge as a dark horse.
“It feels great, especially when you’re first on,” Fritz said about going through in three sets.
“I feel like I have a good amount of time the rest of the day. Especially just with the feeling of how that third set was going, you play these sets where you feel like you’re in control, you’re the one with the break chances.”
GULF IN CLASS
The gulf in class on Court Two became evident early as Fritz eased through the opening two stanzas with minimum fuss, but the 28-year-old encountered a lot more resistance from world number 113 Kypson in the third set.
After losing a six-deuce game to let Kypson off the hook and draw level at 4-4, Fritz shifted gears again in the 12th game to close out the victory and book a meeting with Italian Lorenzo Sonego, who beat Canadian Gabriel Diallo.
While his tennis was flawless, the fashionable Fritz also provided one of the lighter moments of the day by shedding the custom blazer that he wore onto court and then ripping off his velcro-fastened overtrousers in one go to loud cheers.
“It’s actually a lot easier to do it. I just know when I do it, it’s going to be a whole thing. People are going to react to it, which I don’t really want,” Fritz added.
“I took it off slowly in the first round. I actually made a mess of it. It’s actually a lot easier to rip them off. I saw a video of Frances (Tiafoe) doing it. I was trying to copy him.”
He said the men were playing catch-up to the women in the fashion stakes, with the likes of Naomi Osaka dazzling with her kimono inspired walk-on outfit the All England Club.
“The women have done more with the walk-on outfits, making it into a bit of a production. It’s cool. It’s fun,” he added.
“I think we’ll see if people do more moving forward.”
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in London; Editing by Alison Williams)
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