Put Taylor Fritz near any tennis court, and the American can’t stop talking about the sport. So much so, that it would seem as if he’s been dreaming about forehands and backhands since the first day he held a racquet as a child.
Well, not exactly. Actually, far from it. But the top-ranked American looks back at his younger days, where he constantly shied away from tennis, as a catalyst that eventually led to his becoming one of the world’s best—the foundation on which he's built a world-class career.
Back on hard courts at his home major, a grown-up Fritz now looks to have his deepest-ever run at the US Open.
“It's really nice to be back [at the US Open],” Fritz said Friday at US Open media day. “I feel like I've been playing well, got a couple days of good practice. I got a couple [of] more days before the tournament starts. I'm excited to get started and I'm feeling good.”
Fritz has won 31 matches on hard courts so far in 2023, only one win behind Daniil Medvedev, the self-proclaimed hard-court specialist, for most victories on the surface this season. He has tournament victories in Delray Beach and Atlanta, and save for one week, has been ranked in the world’s Top 10 for every week since Oct. 10 of last year.
So with that aforementioned good form, as well as his positive outlook, what’s not to like?
If you asked a younger Fritz, the answer to that question would be … tennis.
The fact that Fritz's mom, Kathy May, was a former Top 10 player in the world in the late 1970s, while his dad, Guy Fritz, was a former All-American tennis player at the University of San Diego, had a negative effect on his outlook on the sport. Being immersed in the game in the household made young Taylor become immersed in baseball, football, soccer, and lacrosse.
Any sport but tennis. And he didn’t just talk the talk about not liking the sport as a youngster.
He limped the limp.
“When I was a kid, I was just making up injuries, looking for excuses to get out of practicing and stuff like that,” Fritz said.
Eventually, the sport that he was born to play became his sport of choice, and like his mother before him, Fritz has climbed into rarefied air.
Unlike his mom, who had to contend with the likes of Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Rosie Casals and Tracy Austin in the race to be the No. 1 American, Fritz is currently on the top of the mountain: the leader of a generation of American men—a group that includes 2022 US Open semifinalist Frances Tiafoe, Tommy Paul, Sebastian Korda and Chris Eubanks, just to name a few—who have U.S. tennis fans hopeful.
Will one of them break a 20-year drought for American men at the US Open, since Andy Roddick lifted the title in 2003?
“When someone has a big result, all the other guys are, ‘If he did it, then I can do it, too,’” Fritz said. “It gives us all that belief when someone kind of just has a big result, does something big, everyone else wants to, first of all, one-up them and do what they did, and then also, yeah, it's the belief they can do it. I think we've all been pushing each other really well.”
And if any of those players need some wise words on their way to the top, there’s no question who’s going to do the talking.
“I love tennis. I love the sport. I love talking about it, strategy, all that stuff,” Fritz said. “Everyone, all the players know to come to me when it comes to, like, advice playing somebody. I just love to talk tennis and break it down.”
Now looking back at the person he used to be, Fritz can appreciate his initial reticence to go all-in with the game of tennis and think about, strangely, how that put him in a good position to become a star.
“If I were to go back, I think maybe I'd be burnt out of tennis if I embraced it like I did now from a really young age,” Fritz said. “I wouldn't go back and change anything.”
So is he now, at 25 and seeking his first second-week stay in Flushing, a tennis junkie who just can’t get enough?
Almost.
“Separate from that, I also hate watching [tennis] when I'm not at tournaments,” a smiling Fritz said.
Well, you know what they say about old habits.
