Taylor Fritz wins the Atlanta Open for his sixth career ATP Tour title

Taylor Fritz won his sixth career title Sunday, beating Aleksandar Vukic of Australia 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-4 at the Atlanta Open.

The top seed and highest-ranked American at No. 9 tuned up for the U.S. Open with his second victory of the season on hard courts, having won the Delray Beach title in February.

He appeared en route to winning this title easily, reaching the final without dropping a set and then holding two match points while leading 6-5 in the second with Vukic serving. But the Australian erased those and then won the tiebreaker to force the deciding set.

Fritz, 25, recovered to take the third and deny Vukic his first ATP Tour title.

The 27-year-old Vukic, who played collegiately at Illinois, will rise to a career-high No. 62 in the ATP rankings. He would have climbed into the top 50 with a victory.

“I just felt so at home and welcomed in Atlanta this week, I’ve been coming back here for so many years, so I’m happy to finally get the title. All week, the support was amazing. I’m not from Atlanta, but it felt like I was because the support was just crazy all week long and it felt great.” Fritz said after the win as quoted by ATP.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.