Battling Andy Murray falls to Taylor Fritz in Citi Open as Dominic Thiem reaches Kitzbuhel final

Andy Murray was beaten 6-7(2-7) 6-3 6-4 by Taylor Fritz in the last 16 at the Citi Open on Friday afternoon.

Murray began with his traditional determination as he fought to a 7-2 tie-break win in the opening set in Washington.

Fritz, the No. 1 seed at the tournament as opposed to Murray’s No. 15, sent down 17 aces on his way to victory as he tried to fight back from the early deficit.

The American won the second set 6-3, before he moved to 5-4 in the final set as his Scottish opponent put up a last moment of resistance at match point, but Fritz was able to serve out the game to reach the last eight.

Dan Evans reached the quarter-finals as the No. 9 seed defeated Alexander Shevchenko 6-4 6-3.

Evans converted four of his six breakpoints to move into the next round.

On the women’s side of the draw, Jessica Pegula reached the Citi Open semi-finals, coming back from a set down to defeat Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina in DC.

The American is the top seed at the tournament and was the heavy favourite against the wildcard, but went down 6-4 in the first set in a match that went just over two hours.

The duo had not played since they met at Indian Wells two years ago, and Pegula’s head-to-head record is now 3-1 in her favour. It is the first time she has reached the semi-final of any event since April at Charleston.

The semi-final, though, is the fifth of her campaign so far this year. She won this tournament in 2019 as her first tour success, as well as having reached the semi-finals three times before this week.

Svitolina may be a wildcard but her ranking takes into account her recent return from maternity leave in April, and she already has big wins this year, over Daria Kasatkina at Roland Garros and Iga Swiatek at Wimbledon, and is now ranked No. 27 in the world.

Speaking after the match, Pegula paid tribute to her opponent, saying: “[I have] tons of respect for her. She just had a baby, and everything she’s going through with her country.

“I told her it was like she came back a new person. You can see the competitiveness in her and I’ve always really respected that.

“She was one of my first big wins when I broke through a couple of years ago, and to beat someone as tough as her gave me a lot of confidence. I always had a lot of respect for how she competes and her attitude on court.”

Meanwhile, Dominic Thiem saved five match points against Laslo Djere to reach the Austrian Open final.

Thiem beat his dogged Serbian opponent in a hard-fought 6-7(3) 7-5 7-6(8) match, coming from a set down to claim victory.

The win means that Thiem, battling back from long-term injury problems, has reached his first final since the 2020 ATP finals.

The former world No. 3 impressed with some of his best form as he battled through a match that lasted for three and a half hours, to set up a final in Kitzbuhel against Argentina’s Sebastian Baez, who defeated compatriot Tomas Martin Etcheverry 7-6(5) 3-6 6-4.

“I don’t know if I can still produce some good words,” a relieved Thiem said afterwards.

“It was probably the longest best-of-three match I’ve ever played in my life, including when I was a kid. I think even then I didn’t play that long for a best of three match.

“It was a very tough and intense match. So close every set, every single game. I knew it straight from the beginning that it would be so close, first three or four games were 20, 25 minutes. It was just an incredible atmosphere again.”