NITTO ATP FINALS

November 18, 2022

Taylor Fritz

Pala Alpitour, Torino

Press Conference

T. FRITZ/F. Auger-Aliassime

7-6, 6-7, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Are you superstitious?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Certain things maybe. Nothing too crazy.

Q. This year when you reach the semifinal, then you won the tournament.

TAYLOR FRITZ: I know that.

Q. Any thoughts?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I mean, I didn't know that until the last tournament. I'm just going to continue not really thinking about it.

For me, that is probably the most impressive stat because the difference in points to winning a tournament, losing the semifinals is massive. One of the only reasons why I'm ranked where I'm ranked is because every time I've gone to the semis, I've been able to win the tournament. It's been a big part of my year.

Q. Before the tournament you had a difficult loss against Gilles Simon in Paris. How fast did you switch from this match to the tournament here?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Well, it was tough to lose that match. But I think what people don't really know, they just look at the results, that we switch conditions and balls literally every week.

In Paris we just played with a completely different ball than we have been playing with. The whole week, I just couldn't get a feel for the ball at all.

When I'm playing Simon, who is hitting the ball low, giving me absolutely no pace to work with, I had no confidence in ripping balls because I literally had no clue where they're going. I'm hitting backhands that are going into the bottom of the net, into fence. They all feel the same to me. I think people don't really realize we switch so much.

For me I wasn't really able to get a feel for the balls in Paris. I didn't stress too much about it. I was upset that I lost the match. But coming back here, we go back to the ATP Dunlop balls that we play with most of the year that I feel like always feel good.

It was very easy for me to kind of like mentally reset, knew I would play well with it, with the conditions. Know that I also feel like I play well when I play against the top players. I had a lot of confidence despite maybe not the best week before.

Q. Am I wrong in saying that you seem to be reading Felix's serves pretty well tonight?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I don't want to confirm or deny that (smiling).

Q. Any thoughts about playing Djokovic in the semis?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I mean, it's a great opportunity. I look forward to playing Novak. Obviously he's one of the best if not the best. He's done pretty well here in the past.

I'm super excited for the opportunity.

Q. You served better than Felix tonight. Do you feel that the serve is maybe more important this week on this quick surface than any other condition this year?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Here's the thing. I think for someone who's a really good server, it maybe isn't the best for them because they're going to hold serve anyways on whatever surface they play on.

I think it helps a lot the people that maybe don't get as many free points on their serve. I played Rafa, but I practiced with Rafa the first day I was here. We played a practice set and I think I won three points returning his serve in the set. That's not normal that Rafa is acing me three times a game.

I think it is very important in terms of, like, if you play a bad game, you get broken, you're probably going to lose the set. That's just how it is. You can't afford to have throwaway games on the serve. I think that was probably my biggest issue against Casper a couple of days ago. The first game I served. I kind of just gave it to him. You can't do that.

Holding serve by far is the most important thing on this court, holding serve and returning. But you don't necessarily have to be serving amazing. If you just hit your spots, take care of the serve, it's going to look like everyone is serving incredible.