THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 2, 2022

Taylor Fritz

Press Conference

T. FRITZ/A. Molcan

6-4, 6-1, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Taylor, give us your thoughts on the match today.

TAYLOR FRITZ: I thought I played really well. I knew that going into it he was a really good player, been playing really well lately. I don't know, I knew I needed to play well.

I just served incredibly well, kind of just gave me a lot of confidence to play free everywhere else because I felt like I was serving so well I wasn't going to get broken.

I'm just really happy with the match.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You served 20 aces today, hit 41 winners. Do you believe playing the way that you played today that you can reach your first-ever Grand Slam quarterfinal?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Playing the way I did today, for sure. The way I served today was, like, I mean, if he wasn't just guessing sides of my serve and guessing right, he, I mean, didn't really get to play. It was one of the best serving matches I've ever had.

When I play like that, it frees up the rest of my game to just go after the ball, just play really confident tennis because I know I'm getting these free points on my serve.

Definitely really happy with today.

Q. Part of advancing as you have means you'll be playing on the 4th of July. What feelings do you have about that opportunity?

TAYLOR FRITZ: It's fun. Obviously I think being in the U.S. to do something fun on the 4th of July is great. But just go out and play like it's any other day here.

Q. How would you describe the state of your game at this moment? It seems each time you're picking it up a notch.

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I'm much happier with the level today as opposed to yesterday or two days ago. I felt like I got broken three times in the match two days ago, and I wasn't too happy about that. I feel like I should have served a bit better, played a bit better. I played a little bit safe in that match maybe because I felt like I could get away with it.

Today I was extremely aggressive, hit a lot of big shots, served about as well as I could serve. I really upped the level today, for sure.

Q. As a group, what message do you think you guys are sending, meaning the American group that has advanced?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I think we're sending a message that we have a lot of depth and there's a lot of strong players that are coming up, constantly improving.

I've said this before. I guess we don't necessarily have all the attention because we don't have a current Grand Slam champion, current guy that's 1, 2, 3 in the world, but we've got six or seven guys that are in the top, like, 40 that are all young. Four guys in the round of 16, and we could have more.

We have a lot of depth and we have a lot of guys that are constantly getting better. Soon we'll probably be maybe a couple in the top 10, 15, 20.

Q. In Indian Wells I think you said you put question marks in the camera. Athletes are always finding new perceptions of themselves. Did that change in some way the way you think about yourself?

TAYLOR FRITZ: What do you mean?

Q. You said you put the question marks because you found it unbelievable.

TAYLOR FRITZ: I put the question marks because I didn't know what to say, I didn't know what to think. I think that's when I made the finals. I'm in the finals. I didn't even know what to think.

Yeah, I guess it is amazing to me that that week kind of just happened. It does change a lot. I'm the kind of person that, when I do something once, I find it a lot easier to do it again. I find that I'm able to kind of, like, repeat the same things that I've done before.

I think kind of winning there is a huge step for me. It gives me a lot of confidence moving forward that I can keep having results like that.

Q. This is the first year at Wimbledon without middle Sunday. What are your thoughts on that tradition going away?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Not sure. I've never made it this far, so... Can't say it's ever even come into effect for me.

It will be like any other slam for me, I guess, where you kind of just a day off and then play another match. Yeah, I'm not really thinking about it too much.

Q. How might your presence on the court here on the 4th of July and Brandon's and others perhaps alter the experience for people who are near and dear to you who are in the States on the 4th of July?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I'm not sure. Hopefully they'll be watching us and not I guess partying on the 4th of July.

Yeah, I don't know, it will be cool. Hopefully between the four of us we can bring some wins back for the U.S.

Q. Your next opponent is Jason Kubler of Australia who just defeated your countryman Jack Sock. He's won 35 out of his last 42 matches. How much do you know about him? Will you be speaking to Jack to find out some pointers?

TAYLOR FRITZ: As far as the pointers go, I'll probably just watch myself with my coach as well. I enjoy analyzing and kind of formulating my own game plans. I feel like I do that pretty well. It's pretty easy when every match here is on video and you can just watch everything. I'll leave that up to myself probably.

As far as playing him goes, I've played him once at the US Open. We were having a very tight match, then he rolled his ankle and had to pull out. Seems like for him that's kind of been something that happens quite a bit.

He's a really good player. He's much better than his ranking. I mean, he's been healthy and won all the matches he's won. For him it's kind of just been injuries and stuff. When he's healthy, has a chance to play a lot, get the game going, he's a really good player.