At the Atlanta Open on Sunday, Taylor Fritz defeated Australian Aleksandar Vukic 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-4 to win his 6th career title.
Having won the Delray Beach title in February, the top seed and highest-ranked American at No. 9 tuned up for the U.S. Open with his second win of the season on hard courts.
He seemed to be on his way to winning the title comfortably, reaching the final without dropping a set and then having two match points while leading 6-5 in the second with Vukic serving. However, the Australian erased those and won the tiebreaker to send the match into a deciding set.
The 25-year-old Fritz came back to win the third and deny Vukic his first ATP Tour title.
Vukic, 27, who played collegiately at Illinois, will reach a career-high No. 62 in the ATP rankings. A win would have let him advance up into the top 50.
“I just felt so at home and welcomed in Atlanta this week, I’ve been coming back here for so many years, so I’m happy to finally get the title. All week, the support was amazing. I’m not from Atlanta, but it felt like I was because the support was just crazy all week long and it felt great.” Fritz said after the victory as quoted by ATP.