London [UK], July 5 : The ninth-seeded Taylor Fritz finally clinched his spot in the second round on Wednesday when he produced a stunning comeback to prevail over Yannick Hanfmann in a five-set thriller at the ongoing Wimbledon 2023.
Due to rain, the American and his German opponent had to wait until Wednesday to finish their match after coming off for bad light with Fritz leading 3-2 in the fifth set on Monday night. After three hours and one minute on Court 2, Fritz came out the fire, earning an early break to advance 6-4, 2-6, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.
"It is great. I am going to have to come back and play tomorrow. It rained all day yesterday and off and on today, so I really just wanted to get on the court and play. I am glad I can just focus on the next match," Fritz was quoted as saying by ATP.com.
The 25-year-old, who hit 42 winners and broke the German four times, will face Mikael Ymer in the following round after the Swede defeated Alex Molcan 6-3, 6-3, 6-4.
Fritz has vivid memories of Wimbledon, having reached the quarter-finals in 2022 and forcing Rafael Nadal to play five sets. This season, his best result was a run to his sixth tour-level title in Delray Beach.
Another American player Frances Tiafoe also advanced, defeating China's Wu Yibing 7-6(4), 6-3, 6-4.
Tiafoe, who won his first grass-court title in June in Stuttgart, showed off his versatility against Wu. He disrupted the World No. 62's rhythm with his slice and was crisp around the net to advance to the second round for the fifth time.
The tenth seed will play Swiss Dominic Stricker or Alexei Popyrin next.
Former semi-finalist Grigor Dimitrov advanced to the second round in a rain-disrupted Wednesday, beating Japanese qualifier Sho Shimabukuro 6-1, 6-2, 6-1.
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