TENNIS Tommy Paul comes through defeating Taylor Fritz in epic Acapulco semifinal clash

Tommy Paul came out victorious against his fellow countryman Taylor Fritz in grueling semifinal in Acapulco, to reach his biggest career final.

In a grueling match that lasted 3 hours and 25 minutes, Tommy Paul survived by defeating compatriot Taylor Fritz 6-3 6-7(2) 7-6(2) to reach the final in Acapulco.

After conveniently winning the first set, Paul failed to close it out from a match point in the second set, allowing Fritz make a comeback and win the set..

In the third set, both men were exhausted, leading to Fritz throwing up and being completely out of gas in the tiebreak, which could be one of the reasons why he lost the set.

Paul will be playing in his first ATP 500 final, where he will face the winner between Holger Rune and Alex de Minaur.

Match recap

Paul swiftly won the first set 6-3, and early in the second set, Fritz hit three consecutive errors from 30-15 to get broken back.

Then four backhand errors from Paul got him broken to love at 3-1. He missed a baseline smash-up match point and got broken 5-5 with the set heading to a tiebreaker.

Fritz, who's 11-1 in tiebreaks this season, saved a match point and won the set 7-6(2), extending his tiebreak streak to 12-1 this season.

In the final set, having both players exhausted and unable to run, Paul went 4-3* from 1-3 and ballpoint down. Then Fritz held from 0-30 to force a 5-5, with the gruelling match now extending to 3 hours.

Paul saved four ballpoints and held for 6-5 in the decider, but Fritz saved a second match point almost two hours after the first. The ballpoint conversion for both players at this stage was respectively 1/8.

Fritz threw up at 5-6 40-40 to Paul and saved two match points to force another tiebreak. However, he couldn't see out the tiebreak, as Paul took the needed victory to reach his biggest career final.