Roberto Bautista Agut faces Taylor Fritz in the third round of the 2022 Australian Open on Saturday, January 22nd 2022.
Will Taylor Fritz come out here and show us why he is the no.1 american on tour, or will Roberto Bautista Agut show us why he is one of the best returners in these conditions?
Taylor Fritz played a great match in the second round, beating his fellow American, Frances Tiafoe, in straight sets. Fritz serve was very solid throughout the match, hitting 21 aces as things went on, and then he was putting Frances Tiafoe under pressure on most of his service games. Fritz is a great player who can really hurt opponents on his day, but he is also a one two puncher, so he will have to change his mentality for this game as it will be very focused on the return and rally game.
Roberto Bautista Agut cruised in his second round match, beating the experienced Philipp Kohlschreiber in straight sets, only losing 4 games all throughout the match. Roberto was impeccable in the match, winning 82% and 72% of first and second serves respectively. Roberto is one of the best players on the tour, being able to hit all of his shots perfectly, and he is one of the toughest ralliers to break down, having shown us already this year that he can beat top 10 players.
This is going to be the 7th meeting between both players, with Roberto having won 5 of their 6 prior encounters. All of their encounters have been won quite easily by Roberto, with Taylor only having won 2 sets against Roberto, which was when he beat him back in 2019. Taylor has definitely improved since they last met, so I expect that this match will be somewhat tighter. However, with the form shown by Roberto since the start of the year, I think that he will be able to wear Taylor down on the return game.