Sawt Falasteen - Fritz says path to Grand Slam glory goes through Alcaraz, Sinner

World number one Alcaraz and number two Sinner have contested every Grand Slam final this year, with American Fritz the last player to break up the duopoly.

Fritz, now the world number five, reached last year's US Open final, where he lost to Italy's Sinner.

Fritz, who beat Portugal's Nuno Borges 7-5, 7-6 (7/4) at the Japan Open on Saturday, said he could not afford to be afraid of meeting the top two if he wants to win his first Grand Slam title.

"I can't count on making it happen on maybe the one-off Slam where they have a random loss or something like that," Fritz said.

"I need to be able to play at a level where, on a day at a Grand Slam, I can be able to beat one of them and make it happen that way.

"I can't count on them not being there -- I feel like they're always going to be there," he added.

Fritz reached last year's US Open final by capitalising on the huge hole left by the shock early exits of Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic.

He saw off 2020 runner-up Alexander Zverev in the quarter-finals after defeating eighth seed and 2022 finalist Casper Ruud in the last 16.

"I beat who I was supposed to beat to make it to the final, and it's becoming more apparent that that's probably not going to happen that often," said Fritz.

"So if you want to do it, you're going to have to go through one of those guys."

Fritz beat Alcaraz at the Laver Cup last week and he could face the Spaniard again in the final in Tokyo this week.

Alcaraz started his campaign with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Argentina's Sebastian Baez on Thursday but the Spaniard hurt his ankle early in the match.

Fritz, the tournament's number two seed, struggled at times against world number 51 Borges but booked his place in the quarter-finals against American Sebastian Korda.

"I put myself in trouble by going down breaks when I wouldn't do that normally," said Fritz.

"But I did a good job to fight back and get back in the sets when I was down."

U.Shaheen--SF-PST