(Reuters) – Italy’s Jannik Sinner ousted defending champion Taylor Fritz 6-4 4-6 6-4 at Indian Wells on Thursday and will play either top seed Carlos Alcaraz or Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime for a spot in the final.
Sinner, 21, was sharp from the outset, riding an early service break and fending off a break point to take the first set behind his solid baseline game.
Fourth seed Fritz responded in the second, breaking Sinner on set point with a backhand winner that brought the crowd to their feet.
An exchange of breaks kicked off the third and Fritz smacked a forehand winner for a 4-3 lead but 11th seed Sinner took control from there.
He leveled at 4-4 with an athletic overhead, broke for a 5-4 advantage and blasted a serve Fritz could not handle on match point, the American’s backhanded return sailing long to end the engrossing contest in the Southern California desert.
“I just tried to play quite aggressively, which I’ve done,” said Sinner, who booked his first semi-final at the Masters 1000 tournament.
“I’m obviously very happy about the performance. Playing against Taylor is never easy. I lost against him two years ago here. He loves the conditions here so I’m very happy that I found a way today.”
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
