Tiafoe cruises past Fritz to win Halle Open and first title in three years

[p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/tiafoe-frances/AHDLJaph/"]Tiafoe[/a] set the tone early, breaking serve in the ‌opening set and remaining composed on his own delivery ‌to keep [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/fritz-taylor/UH09iaZ6/"]Fritz[/a] from settling.[/p][p]He carried that momentum into the second ‌set, again striking early and dictating from the baseline to ‌wrap up the win and [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/game/tennis/fritz-t-UH09iaZ6/tiafoe-f-AHDLJaph/?mid=OMMwJQTI"]snap a seven-match losing streak against Fritz[/a] since his first victory in 2016.[/p][p][b]"I don’t even know what clip ‌I was serving in the first set, but ⁠I felt like I ‌couldn’t miss one," [/b]Tiafoe said.[/p][p][b]"I returned really well. I had no troubles ​on my serve the whole match, and it just feels good to get this done.[/b][/p][p][b]"He’s a hell ​of a player and a hell of a competitor, too. I knew he was going to make it hard out there ⁠at the end, and ​I played some great tennis. Luck was on my way a little bit."[/b][/p][p]The 28-year-old dropped just seven points on serve in the final to cap a memorable debut appearance at the ‌German grass event, as well as claiming his fourth career title and first in three years.[/p][image alt="Key match stats" id="488e1c2d-49bb-4cc3-940e-6d5a74b0f00e" credit-line="Flashscore" guid="2020e1d7-61e7-4209-a728-05a1657116ba" original-width="1080" original-height="1080" /][p]He also registered three top-10 wins during the week, including victories over world number 10 [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/cobolli-flavio/zDtaCcPe/"]Flavio Cobolli[/a] and number four [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/auger-aliassime-felix/CzXh4LAb/"]Felix Auger-Aliassime[/a].[/p][p]Before Sunday, Tiafoe had gone 0-4 in finals above ATP 250 level, including a defeat to Fritz in Tokyo in 2022, and had suffered a five-hour, 26-minute fourth-round loss to [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/arnaldi-matteo/hlVLAfZK/"]Matteo Arnaldi[/a] at the French ‌Open earlier this month.[/p][p][b]"This is big. I just want to ​say one of my favourite scriptures: 'The pain that you’re feeling ‌does not compare to the joy that is coming.' Obviously, that has been proven very true,"[/b] Tiafoe said.[/p][p][b]"It’s something I’ve been living by."[/b][/p][embed guid="9688b3ae-cf00-421f-a2ca-3c2a3a8ccf78" url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RcFzhgXnCc" social-type="youtube" /][p]The Halle triumph will see Tiafoe climb nine places to 19th in the ATP rankings on ⁠Monday, boosting his prospects ⁠ahead of Wimbledon, which begins ‌on June 29th.[/p][p][b][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/tennis/atp-singles/halle/"]Catch up on the Halle Open results here.[/a][/b][/p]