Frances Tiafoe defeats Taylor Fritz to win Halle Open

Frances Tiafoe defeated Taylor Fritz 6-4 6-4 in the final of the Halle Open on Sunday. The result gave Tiafoe the biggest title of his career and made him the first American to win the ATP 500 grass-court event since 1993. Tiafoe broke serve early in the first set and held his own service games to prevent Fritz from gaining momentum.

He repeated the pattern in the second set, breaking early again and controlling points from the baseline to close out the match. The 28-year-old dropped only seven points on serve throughout the final. He recorded three top-10 wins during the tournament, including victories over world No.

10 Flavio Cobolli and No. 4 Felix Auger-Aliassime.

Match context Tiafoe had lost his previous seven matches against Fritz since their first meeting in 2016. Before this final, he had gone 0-4 in tournaments above ATP 250 level. Tiafoe had also lost in the fourth round of the French Open earlier in June after a match lasting five hours and 26 minutes.

"I don't even know what clip I was serving in the first set, but I felt like I couldn't miss one," Tiafoe said. "I returned really well. " "He's a hell of a player and a hell of a competitor too," Tiafoe added. "I knew he was going to make it hard out there at the end and I played some great tennis.

19 in the ATP rankings, which will be updated on Monday. Wimbledon begins on 29 June.