US OPEN

August 26, 2022

Taylor Fritz

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Taylor, your thoughts on this year's US Open.

TAYLOR FRITZ: I'm super excited to be playing. I think this year I'm coming into the tournament with more confidence, more belief in what I can do here than any other year. Feeling good. I'm just super excited to get started.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You just alluded to your confidence. How would you describe what's gone into having that belief and confidence right now at a level that's unprecedented for you?

TAYLOR FRITZ: It's really just how I'm feeling the ball, like, on the court. It just feels good. Hitting the ball really well. Obviously that transfers into the results I've had. Having pretty good results in tournaments, playing good in the matches.

When it feels good on the practice court, it's feeling good on the match court as well. I take a lot of confidence from that.

Q. What did your performance at Wimbledon do for your feeling in Grand Slams specifically?

TAYLOR FRITZ: It was really, really good for me because I kind of just went through the draw, played a lot of solid matches, got all the way to the quarterfinals. Hadn't dropped a set. That's honestly what it takes to go deep at the Grand Slams, is to not really set yourself back by playing these crazy long matches in the beginning rounds, getting your body beat up.

Yeah, I mean, kind of how I moved through that draw is how I'd like to do moving forward. But any time you can kind of set a personal best, like making quarterfinals, it's huge for the confidence.

Q. You said at Citi Open you pulled out of Atlanta because you had a scan on your foot but you weren't feeling it. How are you feeling going into this tournament?

TAYLOR FRITZ: It's been feeling all right. I have to manage it with how much I'm playing. I got another scan done after Cincinnati, before I got here. It's still there. My foot's not healed, but I'm not this danger of full-on breaking my bone or my foot. It's just a stress fracture. I have to manage it after the Open.

But I'm all clear. I don't feel like it's hindering my performances at all. It's kind of nice to have that confidence, that I'm not going to really do something that's going to set me back for a long time by giving it 100% here. It's great to just have that and know that I can go all out here.

Q. In New York it's kind of unique that there's so much air traffic. Do the airplanes getting so close bother you or the other players?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I actually haven't noticed it as much this year. Yeah, I guess that's the answer to the question (smiling). I feel like I haven't even noticed it.

Q. Is there any chance you won't play Laver Cup because of your foot?

TAYLOR FRITZ: It's really tough to tell because I don't know how it's going to feel after potentially playing lots of three-out-of-five-set matches and pounding on it. Obviously I have Davis Cup the week before.

It's the kind of thing right now that I'm taking one week at a time. I have to be very reactive to how it feels. If I doesn't feel great, I got to give it a little bit of rest to let the inflammation calm down.

Really, really hoping that Laver Cup is not one that I'll miss. I'll make sure I do everything I can to make sure I'm there. I've been excited for that one for a while.

Q. What are your thoughts on the opportunity to have coaching from the stands? What impact do you think that might have on matches?

TAYLOR FRITZ: People know what I think about it. I really hate it (smiling).

It's not something that should be a part of our sport. I feel like the rules got changed, or we're doing this trial phase. I feel like the tour was almost, like, bullied into it. A lot of people are doing it anyways. People who are coaching anyways. We're going to allow it and see what happens.

I don't like it. Tennis is an individual sport, so why should someone else be able to help you? I think people underestimate how mental and strategic the sport is, so they don't understand how big of a difference it is.

I think that sometimes when you're watching a match from the outside, you can see a lot of things that might not be so easy to see when you're playing. So I don't like that.

You can get an outside opinion if you're maybe the smartest strategically or analytically, someone can tell you what to do. I think that figuring it out for yourself on the court is, like, a massive part of our sport.

It's something that's unique to tennis. There's coaches in other sports. It's something very unique to tennis that you have this mental side of things. You have to change things up for yourself, figure out yourself what's going on, adjust to what the opponent's doing.

I just feel like we're losing an important part of our sport.

Q. You alluded to bullying.

TAYLOR FRITZ: Strong word. Please don't take me out of context like everyone does.

Look, maybe 'bullying' is not the right word. I feel like a lot of reasons why rules change is because there was so much on-court coaching going on anyway, that they were, like, Oh, well, it's happening anyway, so we might as well stop trying to regulate it.

I don't understand why there can't be just microphones in the player boxes, then someone designated to just listen in on the boxes to hear if there's any clear coaching going on. Then they can alert the umpire that there's clear coaching going on, and we can come down on it harder when people are actually getting coaching from the box.

Q. On that, players that are in favor of the on-court coaching, they say everybody's doing it anyway. Is that true?

TAYLOR FRITZ: No. I've never received on-court coaching in my life. I mean, if you want to call on-court coaching, like, Be aggressive, great job, keep doing... That's not on-court coaching.

There's encouragement and there's on-court coaching.

I've never in my life received a penalty for getting coached on the court. Never received a warning ever. Even now that the coaching is in effect, I don't go talk to my coach. If he's ever saying anything to me, like, I don't hear it.

I think that's the argument that the people that are in favor of it use. Oh, everyone is doing it anyways.

No, like, I never have.

Q. It's been seven years since you won the juniors here.

TAYLOR FRITZ: Wow, I'm old (smiling). Getting old.

Q. Does that feel like a lifetime ago?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Doesn't feel like that long ago, that's why it's so crazy. It's a crazy thing I'm 24 now. I'm going to be 25 this year. I turned pro right before I won the juniors. I'm about halfway through my career, which is just crazy (smiling).