Christian Garin beats Indian Wells champion for best win in eleven months

Decidedly, Christian Garin (29th) is another. He is no longer the player who crumbled at first adversity nor the one who pleaded for everything even if he was wrong. Today, at the hands of Pepe Vendrell, he takes a step forward in his maturity and in the construction of his game. This was clarified in front of the American Taylor Fritz (13th), whom he beat 6-2, 6-7 (5) and 6-3, to qualify for the ATP 250 semi-finals in Houston his best result since the Chile Open title last year and the most important triumph since his victory over Daniil Medvedev (3rd then) at the Masters 1000 in Madrid, on May 6, 2021.

Against the brand new Indian Wells champion, Gago showed his best version for a long time, fully responding to the postulate proposed by his Spanish coach, who Athletic He said last week what he wanted with his pupil. “That the presence we have on the court is that of a very solid player, with a lot of intensity and who takes matches to the physical field, where he has enormous potential,” he told about the recipe that his student followed by heart.

Occupying the spaces well on the court and extending the points to then define serenely, the Chilean broke in the third game and in the seventh of the first set. He failed very little and came back with a lot of authority, which allowed him to make the difference against the American. which was far from the level he showed against Alejandro Tabilo.

In the second set, Fritz raised the level a bit, but Garin was solid in defense and also with his consistency forced his rival to make a mistake. There weren’t a few times that he was desperate because he couldn’t find a way to penetrate the Chilean’s consistency. However, It opened a window for him and twice, as he served 3-2 and 4-3 and both times he couldn’t ratify the breaks. In the end, he ended up giving up the round in the deciding game.

The third set became the test to see how this new Garin responded to the frustration of not being able to close. And he responded very well. He saved several break chances in the first game, then broke in the second and fourth, finally setting up a very meaningful victory for him. He did it with category and many variations: deep, straight shots with enough topspin and also closure points very sensibly in the network. And although it was difficult for him to settle the game, he knew how to be calm enough to achieve it after two hours and 43 minutes.

For the passage in the final, his rival will be the American John Isner (27th), who beat his compatriot Francis Tiafoe (30th) 6-4, 2-6 and 6-3. The match will be played around 2:45 p.m. Chilean time.