APTOS, August 12, 2017

US-Americans Taylor Fritz and Tennys Sandgren battled it out in Friday’s quarterfinals of the $100,000 Nordic Naturals Challenger presented by Santa Cruz County Bank.

The 19-year-old wild card entry sent down six aces and broke serve three times, closing it out in straight sets after one hour and 50 minutes 7-5, 7-6. 19. Fritz reached a career-high ranking of No. 53 last year in August and became the youngest US-American to reach an ATP World Tour final since Michael Chang in 1989. Also, in 2016 he competed in all four Grand Slam events and reached the quarterfinals of the ATP 500 tournament in Acapulco.

Next up for the #NextGenATP star will be British qualifier Liam Broady, who defeated Raymond Sarmiento from the United States 6-4, 6-4 in one hour and 17 minutes.

Rewind to the beginning of the day, Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan, also known as “Sasha” secured the first set of his match against US-American Dennis Novikov in only 19 minutes, and went on to win the match 6-1, 6-4. The 20-year-old is very close to breaking the top 100, and will go on to play Sam Groth from Australia in the semi-finals at the Seascape Sports Club.

Groth fired 17 aces to defeat fellow Aussie Akira Santillan. The match was filled with aggressive serving and powerful groundstrokes by both parties, but Groth came out on top, winning 7-5, 7-6 in one hour and 41 minutes.

RESULTS – AUGUST 11, 2017

Singles – Quarterfinals
[WC] T. Fritz (USA) d [6] T. Sandgren (USA) 75 76(1)
[Q] L. Broady (GBR) d R. Sarmiento (USA) 64 64
A. Bublik (KAZ) d [WC] D. Novikov (USA) 61 64
S. Groth (AUS) d A. Santillan (AUS) 75 76(6)