MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Taylor Fritz doesn’t watch too much tennis in his downtime, but he made sure to have time set aside to watch the final match of the afternoon on the stadium court at the Miami Open on Tuesday.
On one side was Carlos Alcaraz, the No. 1 player in the Association of Tennis Professionals rankings and 2022 US Open champion. On the other was Tommy Paul, Fritz’s close friend and, at No. 6, the second highest-seeded American left in the men’s draw of the 2023 Miami Open. The winner would head to the quarterfinals to face Fritz in the highest-profile showdown of the Open so far.
Fritz is the highest ranked American in the world and now solidly in the top 10 getting to No. 5 last month. He’s playing the most consistent tennis of his career this year, and he’ll have a worthy foil to face him later this week at Hard Rock Stadium when he plays in the Miami quarterfinals for the first time.
