ROLAND GARROS

May 23, 2022

Taylor Fritz

Press Conference

T. FRITZ/S. Rodriguez Taverna

7-6, 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: So well done, Taylor. How much did you know about today's opponent and are you happy with your first match back after several weeks out?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I didn't really, I just knew what I kind of gathered from watching some video of him play his first couple matches here. On the app you can literally watch everything, so I, I wasn't too, I guess surprised going into the match, I knew kind of what to expect and I knew that he had won three matches in a row, first main draw, like the guy's obviously playing his best tennis, he's really confident, he's got nothing to lose playing me, so I expected his level to be high and I think the match was tough.

Obviously I've been out for a bit, coming back and playing here is, I guess, rushing it a little bit and I definitely showed, I felt like I was a bit sloppy at times on my serve, kind of giving a lot of mistakes away.

But the positive is in the fifth set I played a very like solid, clean fifth set, didn't give him much, kind of cleaned up all of the mistakes I was kind of giving away in the previous sets, so I ended with the best tennis of the day.

Q. Where are you confidence-wise on clay? You're a student of the game and you seem to enjoy it, but obviously you grew up on hard courts in California.

TAYLOR FRITZ: I think, yeah, I've said this before, I think I play pretty well on clay, but it's very matchup based. I think playing on clay opens up just the ability, like the people I could potentially lose to, the pool of people that I could lose a match to I think becomes a lot bigger when we start playing on clay, just because you get a lot of guys that it is like their surface, their home surface, kind of what they grew up playing on and that's what suits their game and so they're much more comfortable on it than I am. And maybe I wouldn't lose to lots of these people on a hard court, but on a clay court on any give day there's definitely more people that I could lose to. But as far as my potential to kind of beat people I think that that's still the same.

I felt really good in Monte Carlo, I lost in the quarterfinals, but I was playing a really good match, I felt like I could have made it to the semis or the finals, wasn't far off of that. So confidence-wise right now I kind of need to get it back, just because I've had a couple weeks off, so my game just in general's not feeling as good as it felt I would say after Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo, but I've only been back for about a week, so I know it will come to me.

Q. Whenever I see you I think you remind me of someone and I can't think who it is and then today I remembered. I realized who it was. It's Superman. Because when you're off the court you're very mild and unassuming, a bit like Clark Kent. And then when you're on the court you unleash a super power and become a super hero. So my question to you is, what super powers do you think you need to unleash to fulfill your potential here at Roland Garros and what could the kryptonite be that trips you up?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I think I need to, I'm going to just need to find that level, find my game that I was playing a couple weeks ago before I had to take the time off for my foot. It's just, it's not going to come easy because I spent two weeks in a boot up until basically last week. I flew here on Monday and that's all the practice I've had after taking a lot of time off of not really doing anything.

So I have to kind of find my level. Like I said, the fifth set I felt like I kind of cleaned it up a lot and if I stumble or like you said the kryptonite, it's just going to be just the sloppiness and the rustiness from just kind of not, just not having that confidence from playing a lot of matches winning a lot of matches. So that's kind of what it's going to come down to.

Q. The ATP are working with Netflix on a documentary, I believe that you've already enjoyed spending time with the Netflix crew and had some filming. Your partner is also giving fans an insight behind the scenes on TikTok to try and engage young fans. How important is it, do you think, for the tour to try and engage more with young fans and are there any changes that you would like the tour to make to appeal to a younger fan base?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, that's a good question. I think appealing to younger generation and making tennis kind of more fun and exciting is like probably the most important thing we need to do as a sport and it's always been one of my kind of personal dreams to see tennis become more popular among younger kids.

You know, like when you, I mean, I'm one of the few people that went to like a normal high school. Everyone goes to like the high school football games and basketball games, no one goes to a high school tennis game. It would be cool to see the kind of hype around tennis grow.

And I think, I would say just for, like one thing we can do on tour is be more accepting of kind of like crazier attitudes and like stuff like that going on. I feel like any little thing can kind of get someone fined or get someone in trouble, so I maybe would like to see more kind of just openness for players to be crazier. I think that that's just kind of what the younger generation like responds well to is like all the drama and the craziness and so I think maybe letting players get away with a bit more would be a bit exciting.