Stat of the Day: Taylor Fritz scores 50th Masters 1000 win of career with victory over Wawrinka

Taylor Fritz has recorded the milestone 50th Masters 1000 win of his career with a 7-6 (10), 6-2 victory over Stan Wawrinka in his opening match at the Rolex Monte Carlo Masters on Wednesday.

He’s the 14th American player to win 50 Masters 1000 matches since that level of tournament began in 1990, and just the third active American player to hit that number after John Isner and Jack Sock.

AMERICAN MEN WITH 50+ CAREER MASTERS 1000 WINS (active players in bold):
209: Andre Agassi
190: Pete Sampras
157: Andy Roddick
145: John Isner
137: Michael Chang
130: Jim Courier
84: Todd Martin
83: James Blake
72: Sam Querrey
70: Mardy Fish
67: Vince Spadea
52: MaliVai Washington
50: Jack Sock
50: Taylor Fritz

The 1997-born Fritz is also just the fifth man born in 1997 or later to reach that milestone, after Alexander Zverev (105), Stefanos Tsitsipas (72), Denis Shapovalov (52) and Hubert Hurkacz (51).

Wawrinka had won both of the pair’s previous meetings coming into their second-round encounter in Monte Carlo, and he had his chances in the first set—including a slew of set points in the tie-break—but Fritz weathered the storm, snuck out the set and cruised from there, breaking twice in the second set en route to victory.

Awaiting the No. 8 seed in the round of 16 will be unseeded Czech Jiri Lehecka, who took out Grigor Dimitrov earlier in the day, 7-6 (4), 6-4.

Fritz and Lehecka have met once before, at the United Cup this year, with Fritz prevailing, 6-3, 6-4. Lehecka went on to reach his first Grand Slam quarterfinal at the Australian Open a few weeks later.