Harrison, Fritz Lead American Charge in Acapulco

American Ryan Harrison notched a significant victory on Tuesday, beating third-seed Marin Cilic 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 to reach the Abierto Mexicano Telcel second round in Acapulco, Mexico.

The win snapped Cilic’s 26-match win streak against American opponents, a streak that dated back to the 2008 Australian Open when Cilic was defeated by James Blake.

Harrison was big in the clutch points, converting four of his five break point chances. He broke Cilic twice in the final set and didn’t allow the Croat a single break point chance in the decider to notch the victory.

Up next for Harrison is Ukraine’s Illya Marchenko, who ousted American qualifier Tommy Paul in straight sets in his opening round match.

American teenager Taylor Fritz continued his meteoric rise, defeating eighth-seeded Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 to move into the Acapulco second-round.

Fritz secured one of his four break point chances in the deciding set to move past Chardy in one hour and 42 minutes.

“It feels amazing to have that consistency, to show I didn’t just do it that one time, to come back and do it again,” said Fritz. “I felt like the first set I played a really great game in the very first game to break. He has a really big first serve and I made a lot of solid returns that game and kind of caught him a little off guard. I was able to serve well enough to hold serve throughout the set.

And the third set, I played about the best game I possibly could to get the early break.”

That early break was all he needed as Fritz held serve throughout the third set.

Fritz will take on Dominican Republic’s Victor Estrella Burgos in the second-round.

American Sam Querrey rolled past Israel’s Dudi Sela 6-2, 6-0 to set up a second round matchup with second-seed Kei Nishikori, while Americans Rajeev Ram, Steve Johnson and Denis Kudla were all defeated in first-round play on Tuesday.

Top seed and defending champion David Ferrer also moved through with a 6-4, 6-2 win over John Millman.