Second seed Taylor Fritz battled to a three-set victory over Jiri Lehecka in the last 16 of the Canadian Open on Sunday to complete his set of ATP Masters 1000
In doing so, Fritz has gone where no other American man has gone before in the ATP Masters 1000 series as he has become the first player outside Europe to reach the quarter-final of all nine tournaments since it expanded in 2009.
In a high-quality match with not a single break of serve, Fritz won 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-5) in two hours and 58 minutes as he saved nine break points to his Czech opponent’s five.
Even though the tournament is lacking several high-profile names with Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic absent, Fritz has been one of the stars of the show.
Before his 2025 run, the American had failed to make it past the third round of the ATP Tour’s Masters event in Canada, but the world No. 4 is now three wins away from the title.
The 27-year-old has joined some illustrious names in tennis to reach the last eight of all nine ATP 1000 events since the Shanghai Masters joined the series in 2009.
Fritz has reached the quarter-final of the Indian Wells Open three times (2021, 2022, 2023), the Miami Open twice (2023, 2025), Monte Carlo twice (2022, 2023), Cincinnati Open twice (2022, 2023), Madrid Open once (2024), Italian Open once (2024), Shanghai Masters once (2024), Paris Masters once (2021) and now the Canadian Open (2025).
“Making all the Masters quarters is really cool,” Fritz said. “It shows consistency.
“Today I had to accept that parts of my game were just not there. I was bailed out by a lot of first serves, but I was making too many mistakes.”
The likes of Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Zverev and Alcaraz – all from Europe – have reached the quarters of all nine tournaments.
Current world No. 1 Sinner has one tournament missing from the list as he is yet to make it to the last eight of the Paris Masters.
As for the American contingent, the Shanghai Masters joined the series after Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi retired while both also failed to make it to the quarter-final of the Monte Carlo Masters.
Andy Roddick won five Masters titles, but he also failed to reach the last eight in Monte Carlo as he only made two appearances at the clay-court event.
Fritz will look to continue his winning run in Toronto when he faces sixth seed Andrey Rublev for a place in the semi-final.
