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American Taylor Fritz looks to advance to the third round at a second-consecutive Grand Slam when he takes on veteran Frenchman Gael Monfils at the 2019 Australian Open.
For those in the United States looking to watch, the match is scheduled to start Tuesday night sometime around 10:15 p.m. ET. It won’t be on the regular ESPN2 TV broadcast, but you can watch the entire match live on your computer, phone or streaming device via ESPN+, the new digital streaming service from ESPN (no cable subscription necessary) that will have coverage of all non-televised 2019 Australian Open matches.
You can sign up for a free seven-day trial of ESPN+ right here, and you can then watch a live stream of Fritz vs Monfils on your computer via ESPN.com, or on your phone (Android and iPhone compatible), tablet, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, PlayStation 4, Xbox One or other compatible streaming device via the ESPN app.
Fritz vs Monfils Preview
In his last warm-up before the Australian Open, the 21-year-old Fritz tallied a pair of wins over Marius Copil and top-seeded compatriot John Isner before losing in straight sets to Great Britain’s Cameron Norrie in the quarterfinals of the ATP Auckland Open.
Just four days after that loss, though, Fritz got revenge against his doubles partner on a much bigger stage, taking down Norrie (6-3, 7-6(6), 6-2) in the first round of the Australian Open. It marked the first win in three attempts at this tournament for the young American, and another victory will propel him to the third round of a Grand Slam for the second time in his career after reaching that point at the 2018 US Open.
As for Monfils, he began the year’s first Grand Slam with a non-nonsense 6-0, 6-4, 6-0 win over Damir Dzumhur. The 32-year-old was forced to withdraw from last week’s tournament in Aukland due to a thigh injury, and then he suffered a scary-looking fall in the opening game against Dzumhur, but he recovered and was able to roll to the dominant victory.
Monfils has advanced to at least the third round in eight of his last 10 trips to the Australian Open, including a quarterfinal appearance in 2016. Last year was one of the exceptions, though, as he ran into Novak Djokovic–who was still recovering from an injury and seeded just 14th at the time–in the second round and lost in four sets.
This is certainly one of the more compelling matches of the second round. Fritz is one of the United States’ most promising young talents, and a victory over a player of Monfils’ talent at a Grand Slam–a week after beating Isner–would be a massive boost for him. The Frenchman, however, represents a tough matchup not only because of his overall quality, but also because he has the strong defensive game to counter Fritz’s big serve.
Whoever advances, though, may see their tournament coming to an end in the near future–the winner will likely get a date with Roger Federer in the third round.