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World No. 24 Aslan Karatsev acknowledged he was "pretty aggressive" against Federico Delbonis but admitted that he got tired toward the end of the match. Karatsev, who made the Australian Open semifinal as a qualifier earlier this year, started his campaign at the San Diego Open with a 6-1 7-5 win over Delbonis.
Karatsev made a fast start to the match, having broken Delbonis twice to easily win the opener. Karatsev blew an early second set break but he broke Delbonis again in the 11th game and served out for the match in the 12th game.
“I was pretty aggressive in that match. First set, I was light with my feet and then in the second set I was struggling a bit on my service game,” Karatsev said. “I was breaking him and then lost my serve and found the opportunity to break him again at 5-5.
In the end I just got a bit tired, but all in all I played a great match”.
Taylor Fritz joins Karatsev on the winners' circle
American tennis star Fritz also made a positive start to his San Diego campaign, beating Salvatore Caruso 6-4 7-6 (2).
“I didn’t feel like I was in any danger of getting broken. I was serving well in the first set, it was just getting that break and second set… I played a really good tie-break,” Fritz said. “I played tournaments every weekend growing up here so it’s awesome to be back home.
After a couple of weeks off after the [US] Open, it feels really good to have a solid match, play well." Fritz was glad with the way he was finding his spots on the court. “I was hitting my spots really well," Fritz said.
"I have days where my service percentage is pretty good but I don’t necessarily hit my spots and my serve’s coming back, but I hit my spots really well today and backed it up really well when the serves came back”.