Toronto, Aug 2
Second seed Taylor Fritz ousted the last remaining Canadian Gabriel Diallo 6-4, 6-2 to reach the fourth round of the Canadian Open.
Eyeing his second ATP Masters 1000 crown and first since his dream run at Indian Wells in 2022, Fritz will next face 19th seed Jiri Lehecka, the Czech who rallied past 15th seed Arthur Fils 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to advance.
Fritz broke to start the match and never really gave Diallo a chance to get back in it. The American was squeaky clean throughout, seemingly finding a way to come out on top on every big point. Once he broke to go up 3-1, the result began to feel inevitable and he added a second break late before serving out the match.
Elsewhere, fourth seed Ben Shelton registered a 6-7(8), 6-2, 7-6(5) win to improve to 5-0 in their ATP head-to-head series against Brandon Nakashima.
Into the fourth round of an ATP Masters 1000 event for the second time this season (Indian Wells QF), Shelton moved within one win of claiming his 100th tour-level victory. He will look to accomplish that feat against 13th seed Flavio Cobolli, who beat Fabian Marozsan 6-2, 4-6, 6-3. Shelton is competing this week at a career-high No. 7 in the ATP Rankings.