Fritz Dominates DC Open; Sakkari Upsets Navarro in Tense Match

Washington, Jul 24 (AP)— Top-seeded Taylor Fritz began his North American hard-court season with a commanding performance, serving up 11 aces and saving the only break point he faced to secure a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Aleksandar Vukic at the DC Open.

Meanwhile, in the women's draw, second-seeded Emma Navarro was ousted by Maria Sakkari, who triumphed in a tight contest 7-5, 7-6 (1). Sakkari was the runner-up in the 2023 Washington event, losing to Coco Gauff in the final.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Glowing tonight ✨<a href="https://twitter.com/mariasakkari?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@mariasakkari</a> storms into the quarterfinals in DC!<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MubadalaCitiDCOpen?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MubadalaCitiDCOpen</a> <a href="https://t.co/1Oz090M9so">pic.twitter.com/1Oz090M9so</a></p>&mdash; Mubadala Citi DC Open (@mubadalacitidc) <a href="https://twitter.com/mubadalacitidc/status/1948178540379148449?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 24, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Fritz, fresh from reaching the semifinals on the grass courts of Wimbledon, aims to emulate last year's impressive performance in this segment of the season when he made it to his first Grand Slam final at the U.S. Open. Having received a first-round bye, Fritz will face Matteo Arnaldi in the third round. Arnaldi advanced by upsetting No. 16 seed Lorenzo Sonego 7-5, 7-5.

Other seeded men who advanced included No. 7 Alex de Minaur, No. 8 Daniil Medvedev, No. 9 Flavio Cobolli, and No. 11 Jiri Lehecka. However, No. 5 seed Andrey Rublev fell to 19-year-old American Learner Tien, 7-5, 6-2, and No. 10 seed Alexei Popyrin was upended by qualifier Wu Yibing in a hard-fought 7-5, 5-7, 6-3 victory. Notably, Tien has already racked up four wins against top-10 opponents this season.

In doubles action, Venus Williams and her partner Hailey Baptiste saw their run end in the second round. They lost 6-4, 3-6, 10-6 in a champion's tiebreaker to the second-seeded duo of Taylor Townsend and Zhang Shuai. This is Williams' first tournament in over a year, and her first appearance in doubles since 2022. She and Baptiste had secured a first-round victory on Monday.

Williams is set to play her second-round singles match against Magdalena Frech on Thursday. On Tuesday, Williams made history as the second-oldest woman to win a tour-level singles match, defeating 23-year-old Payton Stearns in straight sets.

In other women's singles action on Wednesday, unseeded Anna Kalinskaya defeated No. 8 seed Magda Linette 6-4, 6-0, while No. 4 seed Clara Tauson overcame qualifier Caroline Dolehide, rallying to win 3-6, 7-5, 6-4.

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